Dozens of people died in air strikes in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state as military aircraft hunted jihadists, local residents and Amnesty International said Sunday.
Africa's most populous country has been fighting a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, since Boko Haram's 2009 uprising, which has seen the emergence of powerful splinter groups including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
In recent years, civilians have been caught in the crossfire and killed in military air strikes targeting the militants, though the authorities sometimes dispute hitting civilians.
The latest air strikes on the village of Jilli occurred on Saturday, the death tolls differing according to the sources.
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Amnesty International said on X there were "more than 100 dead" and 35 people seriously wounded.
“We have their pictures and they include children,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's Nigeria director, told the Associated Press, referring to the casualties.
“We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital,” he said. “We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims.”
Local chief Lawan Zanna Nur however said "the total casualties, dead and injured, is around 200".
Many were taken to hospitals in nearby Geidam and Maiduguri, he added, where at least eight more of the wounded had died Sunday.
"We are talking of dozens dead but it is difficult to give a specific toll," he said.
Nigeria's military said in a statement it had struck a location in Jilli, "long identified as a major terrorist movement corridor and convergence point for Islamic State West Africa Province terrorists and their collaborators".
Calling it "a carefully, well coordinated planned and intelligence-driven operation", the military said in a statement that it "successfully conducted a precision air strike on a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli".
It said "scores of terrorists" were killed in the strike, but did not mention any civilian casualties.
The Nigerian Air Force later responded to reports of civilian casualties with a statement saying it had activated its Civilian Harm Accident and Investigation Cell "to immediately proceed to the location on a fact-finding mission on the allegation".
A market committee member Bulama Mulima Abbas told AFP "36 bodies have been counted" after the airstrike "on the traders".
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An intelligence source told AFP that Jilli market "is wholly controlled by Boko Haram who provides security and collect tax from traders".
Jihadist violence had slowed from its peak in around 2015 but Boko Haram and ISWAP have recently stepped up attacks in northeastern Nigeria in their campaign to establish a caliphate.
The insurgency which started in 2009 has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million more, according to the United Nations.
Early this year the United States began deploying 200 troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to soldiers in fighting jihadist groups.
Nigeria's Attorney General and Minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi on Friday said nearly 400 people had been convicted for terrorism and terrorism financing in the latest series of mass trials.
"In total, we brought about 508 cases. Of this 508, we were able to secure 386 convictions, 8 discharges, 2 acquittals and 112 adjourned to the next phase," he told reporters.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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