Last week’s accidental bombing of Tudun Biri in Kaduna State by the Nigerian Army’s drone unit is the country’s most devastating military mishap in six years, with 120 casualties.
Survivors say they were bombed twice in the 5 December incident, and one family said they lost 32 members.
Punch newspaper reports that over 425 people, including children and women, were killed by military accidental bombings between September 2017 and 2023.
Drawing from previous findings and the official response from the Nigerian Defence Headquarters on past airstrike mishaps, three main factors are needed to avoid accidental bombings.
These are human intelligence (collection of information from human sources), signal intelligence (electronic transmissions that can be collected by air, military aircraft, ground sites, or satellites), and imagery intelligence (analysis and visual representation of security-related activities on the ground).
