Link To Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/5/nigerian-military-drone-attack-kills-85-civilians-in-error
Around 85 to 120 people (muslim) in a Nigerian village gathered for a religious celebration but were slaughtered by military drones. These drones were apart of the Nigerian military searching for bandits and accidentally misfired on civilians. The Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, has ordered an investigation into what could have caused this. In retrospect, this is just one of many attacks on civilians in this country since 2014. The most recent attack has made an impact on the country socially and politically. One way is it has caused outrage to the point where villagers are so scared of it happening again, they began leaving to find new places to live. Another negative effect it has had is the US have stopped funding Nigeria for arms assistance against bandits or groups such as Boko Haram.
This article is significant because it shows negative aspects of Nigeria that could result in the fall of the country/government. The most recent attack has helped liberate people to move and speak up about the human rights violations that have been taking place for the past 10 years. In my opinion, I believe if the government keeps “ignoring” what is going on, it will result in emigration and coups. If these two activities do take place, who knows if Nigeria will shrink in size or even remain a country. I find this article very interesting because it is weird to see a country’s military attack its own citizens by accident and so often over a 10 year period as well.
Connecting this article to what I have learned in class, interstate and intrastate is the best example that can be used to analyze this story. Intrastate means something occurring within a state while interstate means between multiple states. I chose these because Nigeria will be affected in both of these categories. Intrastate conflict will be affected because occurrences like the killing of civilians could end with coups or overthrowing of the government. Interstate relations will also be affected because Nigeria will lose assistance and support from global powers such as the US.