Abuja, 11 December, 2023 / 8:50 pm (ACI Africa).
The airstrike involving a military drone that reportedly killed 85 people and injured dozens in Nigeria’s Kaduna State, though “accidental”, is part of the West African nation’s continued loss of “innocent lives” despite the “expended huge resources”, the Catholic Archbishop of the country’s Abuja Archdiocese has said.
In his homily at St. Francis Xavier Pastoral Area, Baron Goni in his Metropolitan See, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama weighed in on the December 3 incident in the village of Tudun Biri, Northern Kaduna State, when, according to the State’s Governor, Uba Sani, Muslims who were participating in Maulud celebrations “were mistakenly killed and many others injured following a military drone attack targeting terrorists and bandits".
“It is regrettable that innocent civilians gathered for a Muslim religious celebration of the Maulud were mistakenly shelled,” Archbishop Kaigama said on December 10.
He added, “The country has so far expended huge resources and yet the terrorists/bandits seem to increase their strategic aggression and appear hell-bent on destabilizing our country.”
While making efforts “to combat” the terrorists and bandits, the Catholic Archbishop said he finds it regrettable that “we lose lives of security agents in battle, as well as such sad loss of innocent lives as those of Tudun Biri.”
