Civilians bear the mounting cost of Nigeria's war against jihadists and bandits

Nigeria's war against jihadists and armed bandits is the subject of this position. It holds that the war is inflicting a mounting toll on civilians, including through the military's own air strikes, and that there is little independent accounting for the dead. Its advocates point to mass abductions, markets and villages struck, and calls from the UN and rights groups for independent investigations.

The position appears in the dispute over Nigeria's jihadist insurgency, where nine outlets voice it. The material names no individual speakers or promoters.

No competing position is named. The point of parting lies with the official account that the security response is protecting civilians and degrading the militants. Recent events show both sides of that argument: an Air Force strike on a border market between Borno and Yobe states with many civilians feared dead, jihadist attacks and abductions of civilians in central Nigeria, and military operations that freed abducted schoolchildren and hundreds of captives and killed more than 300 militants.