₦airaland Forum

Botched Nigeria air strike kills many fishermen – report

Nigerian bombardment of Kwatar Daban Masara in the country's northeast leaves 20 fishermen dead, AFP news agency reports, citing local sources.

At least 20 fishermen have been killed accidently after Nigeria's military targeted a militant camp in the country's northeast, two security sources and locals told the AFP news agency.

A Nigerian fighter jet early on Sunday bombarded Kwatar Daban Masara in Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, the sources said on Monday.

The area is a bastion for the Daesh-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

The reports of casualties came less than two weeks after officials say another air strike on a village killed nine civilians in Nigeria's northeast where the military is battling a 12-year militant insurgency.

Influx of fisherman

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.

"Any fisherman that goes to that area does so at his own risk because it is an enemy territory and there is no way of differentiating them from the terrorists," one local intelligence source said.

"From the information we have been receiving the death toll is much higher than 20."

Local fisherman Labo Sani told AFP by telephone that the jet strike hit Kwatar Daban Masara at around 6 am (0500 GMT), killing around 20 fishermen.

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 militants said Sani from nearby Daban Masara.

Another fisherman, Sallau Arzika, said 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.

The intelligence source who works with anti-militant militia in the region said the strike was based on "credible information" of a gathering of ISWAP fighters in the village since Wednesday.

He said aerial surveillance and reports from other sources revealed militants were amassing in Kwatar Daban Masara and it was obvious they were planning an attack, the source said.

'Preemptive strike'

According to another security source, the village was subjected to surveillance in the past 10 days after scores of men suspected to be foreign fighters arrived in several vehicles and were ferried to camps inside the lake.

"It was a preemptive strike to destroy whatever plans the terrorists were making," said the security source.

"You don't expect an innocent civilian to be at that location and whoever is found is certainly part of the terrorists," he said.

84-year-old Kenyan man who returned home after 47 years is disappointed his two wives remarried; says they should have waited for him

84-year-old Kenyan man, Peter Oyuk, is disappointed after returning home to find that the two wives he abandoned 47 years ago have remarried.

According to The Standard, the octogenarian had walked out of his Makale village in Malava, Kakamega county in 1974 at aged 37.

He told his people that he was going in search of greener pastures because he needed to take care of two wives and five children, although details of where he was headed and his expected return date were scanty.

Oyuka visited Kakamega in 1983, 1992 and 1996, but never set foot in his home despite being in close proximity to the family. After waiting for many years, his wives moved on and remarried.

On Tuesday, September 21, Oyuka returned to his village where only a few individuals could recognise him.

One of his daughters-in-law was said to have almost raised alarm over fears that he was a stranger who had trespassed into the compound.

In line with the Luhyia customs, a white goat was sacrificed to pacify the ancestors before the prodigal son was allowed back into the house.

The returnee was informed that the wives he left behind had long remarried and put memories of him behind them.

Speaking with journalists after returning home, Oyuka said though he was grateful that his family had accepted him back, he whe was disappointed that his wives did not wait for him.

“I wish my wives were here today to welcome me home,” he said.

"I wish my two wives well in their marriages. However, I’d like them to know that I’m still alive and that they should create time and visit me, he added.

It was gathered that while he was away from home, he ended up in neighbouring Tanzania where he spent 13 years.

He not only met and fell in love with a Tanzanian woman but also sired a child with her.

When his stay in the country ended and he returned to Kenya, communication between the two collapsed.

“My Tanzanian lover stopped communicating with me, and is yet to allow me to meet our son,” he revealed.

Oyuka's return to the home he abandoned started courtesy of a Facebook post in which a Good Samaritan shared details about the old man and asked for leads to his family.

As luck would have it, his 53-year-old son Aggrey Osanji, whom he abandoned at aged six, saw the post and initiated contact, after which he was brought back home.

Oyuka also revealed that his health has been failing and the money he once made from onion farming has been spent on medication, that is why he was desperate to find his way back home.