Amnesty Demands Probe on Nigeria Market Bombing Misfire that Killed Over 100 People

A strike by Nigerian Air Force jets on a crowded weekly market in northeastern Nigeria's Yobe state on Saturday, April 12, 2026, killed over 100 civilians - including children. The incident at Jilli Futchimiram, near the Borno-Yobe border, is among the deadliest single friendly-fire incidents in years.

Three military jets struck the Jilli weekly market, a large trading hub in the Geidam local government area known to be occasionally used by terrorist militants to obtain food supplies. Abdulmumin Bulama, a member of a civilian security group embedded with Nigerian forces, said intelligence had placed militants near the site: "The intel was shared and the Air Force jet acted based on the credible information."

The military's own statement described a successful strike on a "terrorist enclave and logistics hub," claiming scores of terrorist militants on motorcycles were killed and noting that motorcycle movements in restricted areas are "treated with the utmost seriousness." No acknowledgment of civilian casualties appeared in the official military release.

The gap between the military's account and on-the-ground testimony is stark. Amnesty International's Nigeria director, Isa Sanusi, said the organization had spoken directly with hospital staff and survivors: "We have their pictures and they include children."

By Sunday, the emergency ward of Geidam General Hospital had received at least 35 people with severe injuries, a hospital worker told the AP, while Amnesty cited a total casualty count above 100 dead.

The Yobe State Government acknowledged in a statement that the strike targeted a militant stronghold but that "some people who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected."

The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency dispatched response teams to the area and confirmed casualties among "marketers."

This strike is not an isolated incident. According to an AP tally, at least 500 civilians have been killed in Nigerian military misfires since 2017 - a figure security analysts attribute to gaps in intelligence collection, insufficient coordination between ground forces and air assets, and weak civilian-military communication frameworks.

Community leaders have also reacted to the market bombing, some questioning motives behind repeated misfires and calling for further investigation.

The Yobe strike lands against a backdrop of accelerating violence across Nigeria's north. In Zamfara state, approximately 150 civilians were abducted in a single bandit raid; the army subsequently rescued 31 people in Kaduna. In Benue state, 17 people were killed in a separate attack.

These repeated events are reportedly placing immense operational pressure on an air force already operating at the edge of its intelligence capacity.

Amnesty International called the strike "unlawful, outrageous," stating that "launching air raids is not a legitimate law enforcement method by anyone's standard," and demanded an immediate, impartial investigation.

The organization also noted that the Nigerian military is "fond of" labeling civilian casualties as bandits - a pattern critics say systematically obstructs accountability.