At least 20 fishermen were killed on Sunday morning when a Nigerian army fighter plane bombed Kwatar Daban Masara, a village bordering Lake Chad.
Military sources told AFP on Monday that the airstrike was supposed to target an Islamic State West Africa State Province (ISWAP) stronghold.
Kwatar Daban Masara is a village in Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The area is the bastion of the ISWAP.
Labo Sani, a fisherman from Kwatar Daban Masara, said the village on the shore of the lake was “gateway to the ISWAP camps on several islands”.
He said he had witnessed the strike, which occurred on Sunday at 6am.
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.
ISWAP recently lifted a ban on fishermen in its territory, allowing them to fish in the freshwater for a fee. This had led to an influx of fisherman who had previously abandoned the area because of violent conflict.
“Any fisherman who goes to this area does so at his own risk because it is enemy territory and there is no way to distinguish them from the militants,” a member of the intelligence services said.
According to information the intelligence service had received, he said, “the death toll is much higher than 20”, adding that the airstrike was based on “credible information” of a gathering of ISWAP fighters in the region. Aerial surveillance and field reports from other sources revealed ISWAP members had been gathering in Kwatar Daban Masara since Wednesday and it was “obvious they were planning an attack.”
He told AFP that “it was a preventive attack to destroy all the projects that the terrorists were preparing. An innocent civilian is not expected to be there and anyone who is there is certainly one of the extremists.”
On Wednesday, September 15, 10 people died and more than 20 other when a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jet accidentally bombed Buhari village in the Yunusari Local Government Area in Yobe State.
When initial reports suggesting that a fighter jet belonging to the NAF had attacked civilians, military authorities denied the claims. The air force later took responsibility for the hit.
A military source told journalists that the bombing was “accidental” and that it was meant to target a Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), more commonly referred to as Boko Haram, camp in the area.
NAF spokesman Edward Gabkwet, affirmed that there was a fighter jet in the area and that the “the pilot fired some probing shots”.
He said “the area is well known for continuous Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province activities”.
Nigeria has been fighting against the insurgency for 12 years. Although it started in Nigeria, it had spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. It has left at least 40,000 dead and two million displaced.
