Eighty-five people were killed in an air strike by the Nigerian Army at Tudun Biri village in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, in one of the country’s deadliest military bombing accidents.
The North-West zonal spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Halima Suleiman, told Channels Television that 66 other victims were also injured in Sunday’s bombing.
According to her, fatality figure was gotten from the local authorities after the burial of the victims on Monday.
“The Northwest Zonal Office has received details from the local authorities that 85 dead bodies have so far been buried while a search is still ongoing,” NEMA said.
However, emergency officials were still negotiating with community leaders to calm tensions to be able to reach the village.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday ordered an investigation after the army acknowledged one of its drones accidentally struck Tudun Biri village as residents were celebrating a Muslim festitival
The army did not give any casualty figures, but residents had said 85 people, many of them women and children, had been killed in the incident.
“President Tinubu describes the incident as very unfortunate, disturbing, and painful, expressing indignation and grief over the tragic loss of Nigerian lives,” the presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement.