BSS
  28 Sep 2021, 10:29

Nigeria air strike kills 20 fishermen: sources

  KANO, Nigeria, Sept 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - At least 20 fishermen were killed

accidently in a Nigerian military strike on a jihadist camp in northeast
Nigeria, two security sources and locals told AFP on Monday.

  A Nigerian fighter jet early on Sunday bombarded Kwatar Daban Masara in
Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon,
the sources said. The area is a bastion for the IS-affiliated Islamic State
West Africa Province (ISWAP).

  The reports of casualties came less than two weeks after officials say
another air strike on a village killed nine civilians in Nigeria's northeast
where the military is battling a 12-year Islamist insurgency.

  ISWAP recently lifted a ban on fishermen in its territory, allowing them to
move in and fish in the freshwater lake for a fee. That led to an influx of
fisherman who had abandoned the area.

  "Any fisherman that goes to that area does so at his own risk because it is
an enemy territory and there is no way of differentiating them from the
terrorists," one local intelligence source said.

  "From the information we have been receiving the death toll is much higher
than 20."

  Local fisherman Labo Sani told AFP by telephone that the jet strike hit
Kwatar Daban Masara at around 6 am (0500 GMT), killing around 20 fishermen.

  Kwatar Daban Masara which is on the shores of the lake is the "gateway to
ISWAP's camps on several islands" and a supply route for the jihadists, said
Sani from nearby Daban Masara.

  Another fisherman, Sallau Arzika, said the fighter jet struck the village
"killing many of our people who are there for fishing".

  "The initial death toll was around 20, but the figure has been increasing
with the deaths of many of the injured," Arzika said.

  News of the incident was slow the emerge due to limited telecommunications
in the region.

  A Nigerian air force spokesman did not immediately respond to a message
seeking confirmation or comment.

  The intelligence source who works with anti-jihadist militia in the region
said the strike was based on "credible information" of a gathering of ISWAP
fighters in the village since Wednesday.

  He said aerial surveillance and reports from other sources revealed
terrorists were amassing in Kwatar Daban Masara and it was obvious they were
planning an attack, the source said.

  - 'Preemptive strike' -

  According to another security source, the village was subjected to
surveillance in the past 10 days after scores of men suspected to be foreign
fighters arrived in several vehicles and were ferried to camps inside the
lake.

  "It was a preemptive strike to destroy whatever plans the terrorists were
making," said the security source.

  "You don't expect an innocent civilian to be at that location and whoever
is found is certainly part of the terrorists," he said.

  On September 16 a Nigerian airstrike on a village in nearby Yobe state
killed at least nine civilian residents, according to officials.

  The Nigerian air force said at the time its fighter jet was pursuing a
group of jihadists in the area and it was investigating the incident.

  Since 2009, Nigeria's armed forces have battled a grinding jihadist
insurrection in the northeast that has killed more than 40,000 people and
displaced nearly two million from their homes.

  The conflict spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting
a regional military coalition to end the violence.

  In January 2017 at least 112 people were killed when a fighter jet struck a
camp housing 40,000 people displaced by violence in Rann near the border with
Cameroon.

  The Nigerian military blamed "lack of appropriate marking of the area" for
the bombardment in a report it issued six months later.

  In July 2019 at least 13 civilians were killed when a Nigerian fighter jet
hit Gajiganna village, 50 kilometres from Borno state capital Maiduguri, as
it targeted fleeing jihadists after they attacked a nearby base.