By Mike Odeh James
ABUJA, Nigeria–Shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, May 10, Nigerian military jets struck the weekly Tumfa market in Zurmi County, Zamfara State. Witnesses told AFP the aircraft had circled since noon before firing during peak hours the busiest time of the busiest day of the week.
“The actual death toll is hard to establish,” community leader Garba Ibrahim Mashema told AFP. “Everybody, residents and bandits, goes to the market.”
Amnesty International Nigeria put the death toll at more than 100 civilians, with one village burying 80 in a day. “There were screams, blood, and bodies all over the ground,” the organization said. Defence Headquarters spokesman Maj. Gen. Michael Onoja called the reports “not true,” saying the strike hit “terrorist leaders.”
“Tumfa market is under the control of bandits,” said Aliyu Musa, a Zurmi resident who put the death toll at 117. “It is their stronghold. Any person who goes there knows he is on their turf. Many young girls selling millet porridge were killed.”
A doctrine that calls everyone guilty
One month earlier, on April 11, the Air Force bombed Jilli market on the Borno-Yobe border. Amnesty said more than 100 civilians were killed there too.
Defense Minister Gen. Christopher Musa went on Arise TV to defend the Jilli strike. “There was no innocent person there,” he said. “Anybody in that location knew what they were doing. They were there for business with terrorists. A friend of a thief is a thief. We will find you together and deal with you like bandits.”
Applied at Tumfa, that doctrine draws no line between the gunman and the teenage girl selling porridge beside him. International humanitarian law requires exactly that line.
We knew where they were but we couldn’t strike
Musa’s predecessor rejected that logic six months earlier. Then-Defense Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar told BBC Hausa in November 2025: “Yes, we know their locations, but some of these areas are places where direct strikes could endanger civilians.”
Badaru stepped down in December 2025. Gen. Musa took his place. Within five months, his military bombed two markets and declared both strikes clean.
Washington: ‘A sign of desperation inside the Defense Ministry’
Scott Morgan, a Washington, D.C.-based analyst at Red Eagle Enterprises — told TruthNigeria that Gen. Musa’s “no innocent person” statement fundamentally misreads how ordinary Nigerians survive in conflict zones.
“General Musa is criticizing the average citizen for trying to live their lives,” Morgan said. “That may have been the closest market to where they live. They had relationships with vendors at Tumfa.”
“The ‘no innocent person’ line shows there may be a sign of desperation inside the Defense Ministry. The U.S. wants to see tangible results from their training efforts and sharing of intel.”
Morgan warned the pattern signals a dangerous shift. “Most strikes should be designed to minimize civilian casualties. These strikes seem to want a high body count, and that drives the calls regarding violations of international law.”
A decade of bombs falling on the wrong people
Tumfa and Jilli are not exceptions. In 2017, Nigerian jets bombed a displaced persons camp in Rann, killing more than 100 refugees and aid workers. In 2023, a military drone killed 85 at a religious gathering in Tudun Biri — the military denied it, then reversed course. No convictions.
SBM Intelligence estimates military airstrikes have killed at least 400 civilians since 2017. The Trump Administration re-designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern in 2024 over mass civilian killings.
If markets are targets what about the Middle Belt?
“One question no official has answered: if civilian spaces used by armed groups are legitimate targets, what does that mean for Plateau, Benue, Taraba, and Nasarawa — where Fulani Ethnic Militia have carried out systematic attacks on farming communities for years from documented forest camps,?” David Onyilokwu Idah of International Human Rights Commission asked.
“Is Nigeria’s airstrike doctrine applied equally or selectively, by region and by religion?” Idah asked in an interview with TruthNigeria. “The Nigerian Government should send drones, helicopters and jets against Fulani Ethnic militia camps in Plateau, Benue , Taraba and Nasarawa so that we know that it is very fair, Idah concluded
Mike Odeh James is a conflict reporter and he writes for Truthnigeria.
