No fewer than 20 fishermen were killed accidentally in a Nigerian military strike on a terrorist camp in Borno State, Africa Today News, New York reports.
According to reports, a Nigerian fighter jet early on Sunday bombarded Kwatar Daban Masara in Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
The area is a stronghold for the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The reports of casualties came less than two weeks after officials say another airstrike 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.
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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.
A fisherman, Sallau Arzika, told reporters that 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.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK