ABSTRACT

The involvement of the air force in a series of Joint Task Force (JTF) arrangements, which were initiated to neutralise various security threats, accounted for a growing record of air campaigns in Nigeria. Although there is growing public attention for airpower in Nigeria, its operational relevance and associated concerns have received inadequate academic attention. Accordingly, the understanding of recent developments in Nigeria’s air campaigns to neutralise targeted threats against security across the country remains largely limited and incoherent. This study, therefore, seeks to examine trends in air campaigns, with emphasis on cases, locations, targets and impacts of airstrike, in Nigeria. For this purpose, 241 cases of airstrike with 3,210 fatalities and 273 cases of air/land operations with 2,186 fatalities that were recorded across Nigeria in the last two decades were assessed. This is expected to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on air campaigns of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as well as their relevance to neutralise targeted threats and associated human rights concerns in internal security operations.

摘要

空军参与了一系列旨在消除各种安全威胁的联合特遣部队（JTF）安排，这说明了尼日利亚空战的记录不断增加。尽管尼日利亚对空中力量的关注日益增加，但其在空中的相关性和相关关注并未得到足够的学术关注。因此，对尼日利亚为消除针对全国安全的针对性威胁而开展的空中运动的最新进展的了解仍然十分有限且缺乏连贯性。因此，本研究旨在研究空战的趋势，重点是尼日利亚空袭的情况，地点，目标和影响。为此目的，有241例空袭造成3,210人死亡，273例空/陆作战有2例死亡，评估了过去二十年来在尼日利亚记录的186人死亡。预计这将有助于增进对尼日利亚空军（NAF）空中战役及其在内部安全行动中消除针对性威胁和相关人权问题的相关性的了解。