UN Urges Nigeria, Chad to Investigate Deadly Airstrikes
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has called on Nigerian and Chadian authorities to urgently investigate separate airstrike incidents that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including fishermen and market traders.
Turk made the demand in an official statement released on Wednesday, citing deeply troubling reports that Nigerian military airstrikes struck a market, killing at least 100 civilians, while Chadian airstrikes in Nigeria left dozens of fishermen dead. The incidents have drawn sharp international attention and raised serious concerns about civilian protection in cross-border military operations across the Lake Chad Basin region.
“It is crucial that both Nigerian and Chadian authorities conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into these disturbing incidents and ensure that those responsible for any violations are held to account, in accordance with international standards,” Turk said, as quoted in the statement obtained by AFP.
The Lake Chad Basin has long been a theatre of complex security operations involving Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, largely in response to decades of armed insurgency by groups including Boko Haram and its offshoots. Military forces from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which includes troops from all four countries, have conducted joint operations across the region for years. However, the Basin’s civilian populations, many of whom depend on fishing and local trade for survival, have repeatedly found themselves caught in the crossfire.
Civilian casualties from military airstrikes in the region are not new. Nigeria’s military has previously faced allegations of accidental strikes on civilian communities, which it has consistently attributed to targeting errors or the presence of armed elements within civilian areas. Independent verification of such incidents has often proven difficult given the restricted access journalists and rights monitors face in the affected zones.
The UN’s intervention adds significant diplomatic weight to growing calls for accountability. International humanitarian law requires all parties in armed conflict to distinguish between combatants and civilians at all times, and to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm. Strikes that disproportionately kill civilians without military justification may amount to violations of international law.
The UN High Commissioner’s office did not assign direct blame to either military in Wednesday’s statement but emphasised the need for credible independent processes rather than internal military reviews. Rights groups and international observers have long argued that self-conducted military investigations rarely produce meaningful accountability in such cases.
Neither the Nigerian military nor Chadian authorities had issued a detailed public response to the UN’s demands at the time of this report.
The incidents are expected to draw further scrutiny in upcoming sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and may intensify pressure on both governments to engage with independent investigative mechanisms.
AFP