Beyond Jilli bombing

Nigerian troops, in their battle against terrorists, recently bombed Jilli market in Gubio council area of Borno State that shares a border with Geidam council area of Yobe State. The mission was conducted by the air component of the Joint Task Force, Operation Hadin Kai. Scores of persons were killed and many others injured, with controversy trailing the mission amid allegations of civilian casualties.

The airstrike on Saturday, 11th April, targeted Islamist militants that had turned the market into a notorious hub for their enterprise. Nigeria has battled an insurgency started by Boko Haram militants in the Northeast some 17 years ago, with casualties recorded among gallant troops and community populaces assaulted by the terrorists. Boko Haram splintered in 2016, and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) emerged  as a successor platform. Armed terrorists have plied attacks across the country and morphed into new groups – Lakurawa being the most recent.

The military explained that it targeted Jilli market “long identified as a major terrorist movement corridor and convergence point for ISWAP terrorists and their collaborators.” Describing the mission as “a carefully, well-coordinated, planned and intelligence-driven operation,” it said it was a “successfully conducted precision airstrike on a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli.” The airstrike, according to Lieutenant-Col. Sani Uba, spokesman for the Theatre Command (Operation Hadin Kai), followed sustained intelligence. “Post-strike assessment confirmed that the target area was struck with high accuracy, resulting in the destruction of the identified terrorist logistics enclave. Scores of terrorists were neutralised in the strike,” the military spokesman added.

Shortly after the bombing, reports emerged that there were civilian casualties. Survivors claimed they were at the market for civil transactions when the bombs rained in. One of those receiving treatment at a Yobe hospital said he had gone to the market to buy animals when the neighbourhood was hit. “I was with about 30 people and we all fell down after being struck,” he told a news agency. Some local traders denied knowing Islamist fighters had been among them. “I don’t know if there were jihadists at the market. We are just ordinary people doing ordinary business,” a 42-year-old receiving treatment at a Borno hospital  told another outlet.

Those alleged victims had no business being at Jilli market, though, going by information from Borno State Governor  Babagana Zulum that the market was shut down five years ago. In a statement by his spokesperson, the governor described the market as a notorious hub used by insurgents and their logistics suppliers. “I have been properly briefed on the airstrike carried out by the air component of Operation Hadin Kai on Jilli market, a border town between Borno and Yobe states. Let me state categorically that the Borno State Government closed Jilli and Gazabure markets five years ago,” he asserted. According to Zulum, the Borno government would closely coordinate with the military and other security services before resettling any community or reopening markets in areas affected by insurgency.

Yobe State Government backed up the narrative by its Borno counterpart and affirmed that the Jilli airstrike was not targeted at civilians. It, however, did not rule out civilian casualties. A statement in Damaturu said the military conducted the mission against Jilli, a Boko Haram stronghold in Borno, and only that some residents of Geidam council area in Yobe were collaterals. “Some people from Geidam Local Government Area bordering Gubio Local Government Area in Borno State who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected. They have been evacuated to Geidam Specialist Hospital and responding to treatment,” the statement added.

By the way, it is curious that Yobe government described a market that has been shut down for five years by neighbouring Borno government as a “weekly market,” and apparently saw nothing out of place that some Geidam council area residents were patronising the market. But that is just by the way.

“It is a moot point whether it would not have been better to track the terrorists to their base when they leave the market, and wipe out such base”

Defence Minister Christopher Musa defended the airstrike on Jilli market, insisting it was not in error as critics claimed. He said those targeted were “all terrorists or individuals collaborating with them,” stressing that the operation was based on credible intelligence. The minister made the remarks in an interview with TRT Afrika Hausa at the sixth edition of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Türkiye.

“The incident at Jilli was not a mistake… Anyone found with them (terrorists) is one of them,” Gen. Musa said, warning civilians against providing any form of support to terrorists groups, including food or medical supplies. He noted that it is such assistance that enables terrorists to sustain their operations, adding: “If people stop supplying them, this problem will end completely.”

Information and National Orientation Minister Mohammed Idris weighed in on the debate, affirming the precision and intentionality of the airstrike. He said Jilli axis, locally referred to as “Kasu Daulaye,” had for years served as a stronghold for Boko Haram and ISWAP operatives who use the area for logistics, funding and coordination of their attacks. Moreover, in his words, intelligence reports and field assessments had indicated sustained terrorist activities in the corridor.

According to the minister, findings showed the exploitation of civilians, including minors, by insurgent groups operating in the area. He referenced the statement by Governor Zulum that Jilli and Gazabure markets were shuttered years ago due to insurgents’ activity, describing the area as a known terrorist enclave. The Air Force working alongside the Army, he added, had verified terrorist presence in the location after weeks of surveillance before carrying out the airstrike. 

Idris further said the Federal Government had nonetheless ordered an independent probe of the operation and would establish its circumstances. “Government has ordered a full and independent investigation into the incident. This will review the intelligence, targeting and execution, and we will address any gaps and ensure accountability where needed,” he explained in a statement; adding that while the operation was intelligence-led and aimed at degrading terrorist capacity, government regretted any loss of civilian life and considered every Nigerian life sacred. 

Nigeria has been tyrannised for years by insurgent terrorists, and efforts by security forces to tackle down their menace have cost the forces themselves in blood and loss of personal comforts. Sometimes, those terrorists have had the temerity to take the fight to military doorstep to inflict harm. Remember Benisheikh and Monguno, among others in recent history where senior officers paid the supreme price alongside their troops. And so, when people exhibit extreme sensitivity for attention to conventional rules of engagement when security forces take the battle to terrorists, it rings of hypocrisy aimed at discounting the patriotic labour of gallant military forces. Still, the military are a conventional force that have to be held to conventional rules, which on the other hand, terrorists cannot be held to – not  being a conventional force that is answerable to societal morality. 

There is no question that Jilli market was a hub for insurgents and a major logistics route for their operations. But also being a “weekly market” frequented by community residents – despite that it was ordered shut five years ago by Borno government – it could be foreseen that civilians would be caught up in an aerial strafing, since it would be impossible for an airstrike to distinguish between fighters and civilians at a busy market. It is a moot point whether it would not have been better to track the terrorists to their base when they leave the market, and wipe out such base. Since they frequented Jilli market, their enclave must be somewhere close by and those not at the market on the day of the airstrike might yet be in that enclave.

Besides, there is something driving civil populations into the embrace of terrorists. Legendary Chinese leader, the late Mao Zedong, better known as Chairman Mao, once drew a distinction between the mechanistic theory of war and the psychology dimension that he considered more crucial in victory strategy. Military scholars explained his thesis as the ‘soft war.’ They say real war is not about destroying an enemy’s physical capacity, but rather his desire to keep fighting. Applied to Nigerian jihadists, local base populations play a major role in sustaining the zeal of fighting armies as the Defence Minister himself observed. To defeat those armies, a crucial step will be to alienate the base populations from them and isolate them as a spiritless fighting army to be crushed. Terrorists will be more easily defeated when local populations they relate with are won over to the state, not alienated by the state.