An ‘accidental strike’ is that familiar phrase Nigerian officials like to use when airstrikes kill civilians during operations.
Development Diaries reports that the Nigerian Air Force has opened a probe after civilians, including children, were recently killed in Niger State.
As usual, the headlines say an investigation is underway, and as usual, the public is expected to wait quietly.
So what exactly is the system that’s failing here?
Civilian protection, the very thing security forces are supposed to safeguard, is taking hit after hit, with accountability long taking a back seat.
The core problem is that our targeting and intelligence processes in conflict zones are full of gaps. When you cannot clearly tell who is a threat and who is a farmer, you create the perfect conditions for tragedies dressed up as ‘accidental strikes’.
Add to that the fact that Nigeria does not have a credible, independent way of tracking civilian harm. Without it, every investigation ends up as an internal memo passed around in a few offices, not a public record that communities can trust.
And once there is no public accountability, impunity becomes the natural culture, with people losing children, wives, brothers, and nobody is held responsible.
There is a command chain that approved the operation, and there are oversight institutions whose job is to demand transparency rather than accept quiet, carefully worded conclusions. Even when the evidence of harm stares everyone in the face, it is the Nigerian people who must do the chasing.
But the conversation is not complete without recognising who bears the heaviest invisible cost. When children survive strikes with serious injuries, they face the risk of living with lifelong disabilities, with mothers, grandmothers, and sisters as the caregivers who navigate that burden without any state support.
This is the point where everyone should step up. We should start by asking, when will this investigation be finished? What exactly will be made public? Who will be compensated, and how?
Affected families also need help documenting the harm, including medical bills, witness accounts, everything that prevents their suffering from being wiped away by official silence.
Institutions, for their part, must publish the findings and provide immediate care and compensation to the families, not promises that evaporate in the heat.
