An airstrike on rebels accidentally killed 10 people, the Nigerian military said

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) – An airstrike targeting an armed group in northwestern Nigeria accidentally killed at least 10 people, the West African country's military said Friday.

The civilians were killed on Christmas Day when the air force attacked the rebel group's base in Lakurawa in Silame area of ​​Sokoto state, Edward Buba, the spokesman for the Nigerian Ministry of Defense, told reporters at a press conference.

On Thursday, the Sokoto state government said the air force had mistakenly targeted residents of the area in the early hours of Wednesday while trying to dislodge insurgents from the area.

However, on Friday, Buba said that only the terrorists in Lakurawa were directly attacked by weapons and that the civilians were killed by the “second explosion.”

The Lakurawa rebel group first entered Africa's most populous country following a wave of coups that strained Nigeria's relations with neighboring Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, damaging their ability to cooperate against international threats.

Initially gaining local support by helping communities defend themselves against armed cattle rustlers, the group later sought to impose strict Islamic laws in communities bordering French-speaking countries.

Airstrikes on civilians are frequent in the country. Last year, at least 85 civilians were killed when a military drone attack mistakenly targeted a religious congregation in northwestern Nigeria.

Since 2017, about 400 civilians have been killed in these accidental military strikes, according to Lagos-based security firm SBM Intelligence.

Before the insurgency in Lakurawa, Nigeria was fighting Boko Haram in the northeastern part of the country. Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009 to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, on the region.

The group has since split into separate factions, resulting in the deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of over 2 million people, as well as a humanitarian crisis with millions of people in dire need of foreign aid.