At least 100 civilians were killed in a Nigerian military airstrike on a crowded Tumfa market in Zamfara State, according to Amnesty International yesterday, urging authorities to ‌investigate the incident.

Following the tragedy, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar delivered a blunt verdict on the country’s security situation, saying Nigeria is under siege and that the President Bola Tinubu administration “appears either overwhelmed, indifferent or dangerously incompetent” in the face of a national emergency.

The airstrike, which hit the remote Tumfa market in Zurmi district on Sunday, was the second to kill many people at a crowded market in northern Nigeria in a month.

Injured persons were being treated at hospitals in Zurmi and nearby Shinkafi, Amnesty said, adding that many of those killed were young and old women.

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has yet to issue a statement on the incident.

Citing witnesses, Amnesty on its X account (formerly Twitter), said military jets had been spotted hovering around the area at midday and returned about two hours later and struck the crowded market.

Nigeria’s military has been battling banditry in the North-West and a 17-year Islamist insurgency in the North-East.

The United States had struck what it said were Islamist terrorists’ bases in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day last year, after President Donald Trump accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians.

“This pattern of human rights violation is increasingly becoming the norm, with villagers at the receiving end ⁠of atrocities by both armed groups, bandits and the military.

“The total lack of transparency and absence of independent and impartial investigations into such reckless air strikes and other violations, no matter who is responsible, means public trust in the country’s institutions will continue to be seriously eroded”, Amnesty stated.

Atiku expressed grief and outrage yesterday over the tragic death of former House of Representatives member Abba Adamu, who was reportedly abducted by bandits along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on May 3, 2026, and died in captivity on May 12, despite desperate efforts by his family to secure his release.

The former VP urged the Federal Government to treat the nation’s security collapse as the emergency it truly is and extended his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families, the people of Jigawa State, and all Nigerians who continue to suffer the devastating consequences of worsening insecurity.

The Wazirin Adamawa, in a statement issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, noted that the horrifying death of a former federal lawmaker at the hands of criminals is not merely a personal tragedy, but a damning indictment of a government that has failed in its most sacred constitutional duty: the protection of lives and property.