Amnesty International on Tuesday alleged that at least 100 civilians were killed when Nigerian military aircraft bombed the crowded weekly market at Tumfa in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State on Sunday afternoon, and called for an immediate, independent investigation. Witnesses told the rights organisation that many of the dead were women and girls, and that military jets were observed hovering over the area at midday before returning around 2 p.m. to strike. Survivors were treated at hospitals in Zurmi and Shinkafi, with the most severely wounded transferred to Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital in Gusau.
The Defence Headquarters in Abuja has disputed the casualty figures. Maj.-Gen. Michael Onoja, Director of Defence Media Operations, said in a Tuesday statement that troops of Joint Task Force North West, Operation FANSAN YAMMA, conducted the operation on May 10 against what credible multi-source intelligence had identified as a high-level meeting of terrorist ring leaders coordinating attacks across nearby communities. The military said the circulating civilian casualty figures were unverified and remained under review. Local accounts from Tumfa village put the figure as high as 117 dead, with 80 reportedly buried in a single community.
This is the second mass-casualty airstrike on a market in northern Nigeria within a month. Amnesty cited an earlier strike in Jilli, on the Borno-Yobe border in April, that allegedly killed roughly 200 civilians. The pattern is tightening scrutiny of the air-strike intelligence chain in operations against banditry across the northwest, where remote markets are sometimes infiltrated or controlled by armed groups, complicating target verification. Amnesty’s call is for accountability, reparations to survivors, and a review of military tactics in populated areas. The political weight will land in the coming days as the National Assembly responds and the Nigerian Air Force issues its own statement.
Sources: Reuters; Amnesty International; Premium Times; Guardian Nigeria, May 12–13, 2026.