The Nigerian Air Force struck a weekly market near Jilli village in Borno State’s Gubio Local Government Area on April 11, killing at least 100 civilians, according to Amnesty International, which spoke directly with survivors and hospital staff.
The operation came 48 hours after Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters overran the 29 Task Force Brigade’s base in Benisheikh, Kaga Local Government Area, killing Brigadier General Oseni Omoh Braimah and three other personnel.
Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi confirmed the death toll from firsthand accounts
“We are in touch with people that are there. We spoke with the hospital. We spoke with the person in charge of casualties and with the victims,” Sanusi said.
Casualty counts vary sharply across sources.
Councillor Lawan Zanna Nur Geidam of Yobe State’s Geidam district told reporters that at least 200 people were feared dead and that the injured had been transferred to hospitals in Yobe and Borno.
Daily Trust reported an eyewitness count of 56 killed and 14 hospitalized, while The Sun and Punch cited sources placing the toll at 10 dead. The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency said casualty details “remain unverified.”
The Joint Task Force North East, Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK), said its air component conducted a planned precision strike on April 11 after intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets detected ISWAP gun trucks and motorcycles moving along the Bindul-Jilli corridor.
Bindul-Jilli market bombed by NAF is the ISWAP logistics base, terrorists targeted, obliterated
By Hamza Suleiman/NAN
The Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) has neutralised scores of terrorists and destroyed their operational assets in Jilli, Gubio Local Government…
— Bayo Onanuga, OON, CON (@aonanuga1956) April 12, 2026
Lt. Col. Sani Uba, OPHK’s media information officer, said scores of fighters were neutralized and ISWAP’s supply chain disrupted.
OPERATION HADIN KAI: AIR COMPONENT NEUTRALISES TERRORIST LOGISTICS HUB AND ENCLAVE IN PRECISION AIR STRIKE AT JILLI, GUBIO LGA OF BORNO STATE
The Air Component of Joint Task Force (North East) Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK), in a carefully planned and intelligence-driven operation,… pic.twitter.com/dLE6myjSj5
— Comrade Àmọdá 🦇 (@AmodaOgunlere) April 13, 2026
The Jilli market sits on the Borno-Yobe border and is known to be regularly patronized by ISWAP fighters buying food and supplies.
Abdulmumin Bulama, a civilian security group member embedded with Nigerian forces in the northeast, said intelligence indicated fighters were assembling near the market ahead of a planned attack on surrounding communities.
“The intel was shared and the air force jet acted based on the credible information,” Bulama said.
Brigadier General Dahiru Abdulsalam of the Yobe State Government confirmed on social media that the military strike targeted a Boko Haram stronghold and that “some people from Geidam LGA bordering Gubio LGA in Borno State who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected.”
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In a statement by the Special Adviser on Security Matters to the Gov. Mai Mala Buni, Brig.-Gen. Dahiru Abdulsalam (rtd), the government said the operation was conducted on a known Boko Haram stronghold in Jilli, Gubio council area of Borno.He said that some residents of…
— nigerianoise.com (@nigerianoise) April 12, 2026
NAF airstrikes have killed at least 500 civilians since 2017, according to an Associated Press tally.
A December 2024 strike on Silame, Sokoto State killed 10 civilians; the NAF delivered compensation to victims’ families nearly a year later.
The Nigerian Army confirmed four personnel killed in the April 9 Benisheikh attack and disputed higher casualty reports.
The Nigerian Air Force has activated its Civilian Harm Accident and Investigation Cell to conduct a formal fact-finding mission into the incident.
