A U.S. airstrike that targeted an alleged Islamic State camp in Nigeria has caused panic in the village of Jabo. Villagers, who had never experienced a terror attack, were confused.
Sanusi Madabo, a 40-year-old farmer in the Nigerian village of Jabo, was preparing for bed Thursday night when he heard a loud noise that sounded like a plane crashing. He rushed outside his mud house with his wife to see the sky glowing a bright red.
The light burned bright for hours, Madabo said: “It was almost like daytime.”
He did not learn until later that he had witnessed a U.S attack on an alleged Islamic State camp.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the U.S had launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against “ISIS Terrorist Scum in north-west Nigeria.” The Nigerian government has since confirmed the strike was a joint collaboration with the U.S government.
Residents of Jabo, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto, told The Associated Press in interviews Friday that they were seized with panic and confusion at the airstrikes.
They also said the village had never experienced a terror attack, even though attacks regularly occur in neighboring villages.
“As it approached our area, the heat became intense,” recalled Abubakar Sani, who lives just a few houses from the scene of the explosion.
“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told the AP. “The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens. We have never experienced anything like this before.”
The Nigerian military did not respond to an AP request asking how many locations were targeted.
