Teen Suspect Nabbed Over Borno Attack as Rights Group Condemns Deadly Airstrike

Troops of the Joint Task Force (North East), Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), have arrested a 15-year-old suspect over his alleged involvement in a deadly attack that claimed the life of a senior military officer and two soldiers in Borno State.

The suspect, identified as Tijjani, was apprehended on Sunday in Ngamdu while reportedly on an errand to procure food supplies for members of his group.

Security sources said the arrest followed intelligence linking him to coordinated assaults on Benisheik and Ngamdu carried out last Thursday.

The attack resulted in the death of Brigadier General Oseni Braimah, Commander of the 29 Task Force Brigade under OPHK, alongside two soldiers, after suspected Boko Haram insurgents overran their base.

In a video confession, the teenager, who spoke in Hausa, admitted participating in the operation. He disclosed that the fighters mobilised from Jilli and retreated to the same location after the attack.

“Before the attack, we came from Jilli and returned there afterwards. I was sent from Jilli with N850,000 to collect logistics from Ngamdu but was arrested by troops.

I left other fighters there on Saturday; I don’t know what has happened to them,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has strongly condemned a recent Nigerian Air Force airstrike on Jilli Market along the Borno–Yobe axis, which reportedly left over 200 civilians dead, most of them traders, with many others injured.

In a statement, the group described the incident as part of a troubling pattern of military air operations resulting in civilian casualties across the country over the past decade.

HURIWA cited multiple incidents, including the 2014 airstrike in Kayamla, Borno State; the 2017 bombing of an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Rann; and subsequent strikes in Adamawa, Zamfara, Niger, Nasarawa, and other states, which collectively claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

The group argued that the recurring tragedies point to systemic lapses in intelligence gathering, target verification, operational discipline, and accountability within military operations.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the frequency of such incidents raises serious concerns about institutional responsibility.

“When such deadly errors become frequent and predictable, they amount to institutional negligence and a grave violation of the right to life,” he said.

Describing the Jilli incident as a “catastrophic failure of state responsibility,” Onwubiko warned that civilians remain vulnerable not only to insurgent attacks but also to actions of state forces tasked with their protection.

The organisation called for an independent investigation into the airstrike and urged the Federal Government to constitute a civilian-led panel comprising the National Human Rights Commission and civil society organisations to probe the incident and make its findings public.

It also demanded compensation totalling N200 billion for victims’ families calculated at N1 billion per victim alongside comprehensive medical care and rehabilitation for survivors.

HURIWA further urged affected families to seek legal redress and called on the military to issue a formal apology while reviewing its rules of engagement, particularly in relation to operations in civilian-populated areas.

The group warned that failure to address the recurring incidents could further erode public trust and expose innocent citizens to continued danger.

“The value of Nigerian lives must never be reduced to statistics or collateral damage. This must be a turning point. Never again should such preventable tragedies occur,” the statement added.