To be released
5.12.23
COUNTERINSURGENCY OPERATIONAL FAILURE IN KADUNA: A CALL FOR REVIEW AND CAUTION
CLEEN Foundation is outraged over the accidental bombing of Tudun Biri in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State by the Nigerian Army on Sunday, which left no fewer than 85 villagers dead. This operational and intelligence failure could have been avoided if the much talked about synergy among the service had been used as a playbook in the counterterrorism operation. The Nigerian Air Force has openly denied knowledge of any operation in the state for over 24 hours while the Army already took the blame, which e commended. Strategic communication is at the heart of counterinsurgency operations.
However, this brings to bear that the Army has operationalised its own Army aviation covertly or overtly. This still brings to the table the political economy of conflict. It also exposes poor interagency coordination, collaboration and communication. Residents of the affected communities said they were celebrating Maulud, an Islamic event when the bombs were dropped by the military; this is a catastrophe that must be managed as a measure to boost citizen confidence in the armed forces.
The Terrorism Prevention Act 2022 provides compensation for victims in a situation like this. Civilians are not only increasingly directly caught up in the violence, but unintended fatalities among the civilian population are often one of the things at stake in a conflict. The development of such a situation in Kaduna can be attributed, among other things, to increased weakness in inter-agency collaboration and poor management of intel in the home operational glitch. Nowadays, the general lack of protection in crises affecting civilians caught up in armed conflict and other situations of violence is due, not to an inadequate legal framework, but to poor compliance.
Our Prayers:
- We therefore call on the government to put in place a framework for the protection of civilians and civilian harm mitigation in armed conflict as a matter of urgency. The absence of such a framework at the national level has continued to affect the rules of engagement deployed to various operational theatres.
- We demand compensation to be paid with a public apology alongside social and economic rehabilitation to victims.
- We call for a full investigation into the incident in Kaduna and demand public presentation of the report. We also request an immediate operational evaluation of the platforms and the entire army aviation involved in this operation.
- We demand an immediate pause to the army aviation operations until an evaluation report by the Defence Council a we required for the setting up of an Armed Force Service Commission.
Gad Peter
Executive Director