Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been called upon to stop the killing of innocent citizens by its operatives in the one-too-many cases of friendly fire.

The call is contained in a letter by a human rights activist, Hamza Dantani, to the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar.

The letter, dated June 2, 2025, started by lamenting the pains and sorrows the killings had caused many Nigerians.

“I write to you today with deep sorrow and mounting outrage over yet another tragic incident involving a Nigerian Air Force fighter jet, which, on the 2nd of June 2025, mistakenly killed no fewer than 20 vigilantes during an operation targeting criminal elements in Zamfara State.”

It noted that on January 11, no fewer than 16 civilians were similarly killed in Zamfara under the same tragic circumstances, recalling also that on September 27, 2024, 24 lives were lost in a deadly airstrike in Kaduna State, all allegedly mistaken for bandits.

He added that in 2023, Human Rights Watch documented two significant incidents: one in Nasarawa State, where an airstrike by the Air Force killed 39 people in January, and another in Tundun Biri of Kaduna State in December, when an army airstrike during a religious celebration resulted in 85 deaths.

The letter also recalled the January 2017 tragedy, where no fewer than 112 people were killed when a jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people, who had been displaced by jihadist violence in a town near the Cameroonian border, saying: “These are but a few among numerous fatal military errors that have resulted in the deaths of innocent Nigerians in the North-West and North-East since 2017.”

The repetition of “these so-called accidents”, according to him, “raises grave questions about the competence of the Nigerian Air Force under your leadership. They reveal a critical failure in military accountability and operational protocols.”

He said it was no longer tenable to dismiss the killings as mere mistakes, saying: “A mistake repeated again and again, with devastating consequences, ceases to be a mistake; it becomes a pattern, a pattern of recklessness, negligence, and utter disregard for civilian lives.”

He listed some steps Air Force chiefs must take to end the killings. They include immediate halting of all indiscriminate airstrikes in civilian areas; launching of an independent investigation into the most recent and past incidents, including the June 2, 2025 strike; identify and hold accountable all officers and personnel, whose actions or negligence resulted in these killings of innocent Nigerians; ensuring adequate and transparent compensation to all families affected by these unlawful killings; andreforming the rules of engagement, airstrike protocols, and intelligence verification systems to prioritise civilian safety.