Elke oorlog die de Nigeriaanse luchtmacht heeft uitgevochten
Nigerian air strikes have repeatedly killed civilians, from the bombing of Biafran markets, schools and hospitals to the camp for displaced people at Rann in January 2017, where MSF counted about 90 dead and the ISS later cited 112; each toll is given with the source that reports it, and insurgent fighters killed are the air force’s own claims and are not repeated. The December 2023 strike at Tudun Biri was by a Nigerian Army drone, not the air force. In Benin in December 2025, Wikipedia’s summary of media reports says President Talon asked for Nigeria’s help, and Benin’s government said its own forces had foiled the coup. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the Biafran war of 1967 to the strikes on coup plotters in Benin in December 2025.
| Conflict | Jaren | Tegen | Hoofdvliegtuig | Uitvallen | Vliegtuig verloren | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Nigeriaanse Burgeroorlogthe Biafran warNigeriaanse luchtmacht | 1967–1970 | Biafra | MiG-17, MiG-15UTI, Il-28en nog 1 | |||
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Bombed and strafed Biafran forces and towns, attacked the Uli airstrip and the relief airlift, and supported the federal ground offensives. Nigeria had no combat aircraft when the war began on 6 July 1967. After Biafran raids, Soviet MiG-17s reached Kano via Egypt from 13 August 1967, with Il-28 bombers based at Calabar and Port Harcourt. Wikipedia says about 200 Soviet technicians came with the MiGs and that Egyptian pilots flew them. Bombing of Biafran markets, schools and hospitals was widely reported abroad and, in Wikipedia’s summary, helped win Biafra international sympathy. By spring 1969 European contract pilots had replaced the Egyptians. Biafra fought back with a small mercenary-flown force of B-25s, B-26s and Swedish MFI-9B light aircraft led by Carl Gustaf von Rosen and others, and depended on a night airlift into Uli that Nigerian aircraft attacked. Resultaat Federal victory; Biafra surrendered on 15 January 1970. The number of MiG-17s (8 to 17) and the identity of foreign pilots rest on secondary sources cited by Wikipedia; casualty figures from the bombing of civilians are not given here because no reliable count was found.
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| ECOMOG in Liberiathe First Liberian Civil WarNigeriaanse luchtmacht | 1990–1998 | National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) | Alpha Jet, C-130H | 0 | ||
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Close air support, interdiction and anti-shipping strikes against Charles Taylor’s NPFL for the ECOWAS force; airlift. Nigeria provided about 7,000 of ECOMOG’s 11,000 troops and more than 70 per cent of its cost. Four Alpha Jets deployed in 1990 and hit Charles Taylor’s headquarters, convoys, shipping and gun positions at the airport; the New York Times judged that they gave ECOMOG a decisive firepower advantage, as quoted by Wikipedia. In 1992 six aircraft under ECOMOG command flew about 3,000 missions, including bridge denial and night raids. Resultaat ECOMOG completed its withdrawal from Liberia by the end of 1998. Sortie figures come from Wikipedia’s Alpha Jet article and were not checked against a primary source.
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| ECOMOG in Sierra Leonethe Sierra Leone Civil WarNigeriaanse luchtmacht | 1997–2000 | Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) | Alpha Jet | |||
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Air strikes for the Nigerian-led ECOMOG force against the AFRC junta and the RUF, including the defence of Freetown in January 1999. ECOMOG deployed to Sierra Leone in 1997. In 1998 ECOMOG aircraft forced down a helicopter carrying the former junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma, per Wikipedia. Human Rights Watch’s July 1999 report records that during the rebel attack on Freetown in January 1999 ECOMOG jets bombed a column of civilians whom rebels were using as human shields, and that ECOMOG’s commander said troops had been told to “kill everything” if human shields were used again. Resultaat Niet gedetailleerd beschreven in de geraadpleegde bronnen. End year approximate and not confirmed in the sources checked. HRW does not name the aircraft type; the Alpha Jet attribution follows the air force’s known deployment. Casualties of the Freetown bombing are not given by HRW in the passage checked.
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| Contraterrorisme in het noordoostenBoko Haram and ISWAP; Operation Hadin KaiNigeriaanse luchtmacht | 2013– | Boko Haram (JAS) and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) | Alpha Jet, F-7NI, A-29 Super Tucanoen nog 7 meer | |||
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Air strikes, close air support, surveillance and airlift against Boko Haram (JAS) and Islamic State West Africa Province. Air power became central after 2013, and the authors of a 2025 study in The Conversation credit it with locating and destroying many insurgent camps. It also produced the service’s worst mistake. On 17 January 2017 an air force aircraft bombed the camp for displaced people at Rann, Borno, during an aid distribution: MSF counted about 90 dead and said the toll might reach 170; the ISS later cited 112 killed and 97 injured. The military’s inquiry blamed the lack of markings on the camp. The ISS also lists 17 killed at Sakotoku, Damboa, on 13 April 2020. The air force now says civilian harm mitigation is embedded in its doctrine. Resultaat Wordt vervolgd. Insurgent fighters killed are the air force’s own claims and are not repeated here. Civilian tolls differ by source and are attributed.
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| Operaties tegen gewapende bendes in de noordwestelijke en noordcentrale staten.the banditry crisisNigeriaanse luchtmacht | 2021– | Armed bandit groups and Lakurawa | Alpha Jet, A-29 Super Tucano, Mi-35en nog 1 | 1 | ||
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Air strikes and surveillance against armed criminal gangs (“bandits”) and, from 2024, the Lakurawa group. Mistaken strikes have followed the air war west. ISS lists six children killed at Kurebe, Niger State, in April 2022 and a death at Kunkuna, Katsina, in July 2022, and 37 killed in Doma, Nasarawa, in January 2023. Wikipedia’s list, citing media and SBM Intelligence, adds more than 60 at Daban Masara in 2021, 64 at Mutumji in December 2022, more than ten in Sokoto in December 2024 and 16 in Zamfara in January 2025, and SBM’s total of over 400 civilians killed in such incidents between 2017 and 2025. The December 2023 strike at Tudun Biri, Kaduna, which ISS reports caused 120 casualties, was by a Nigerian Army drone, not the air force. Resultaat Wordt vervolgd. Start year is that of the earliest incident in the sources checked; operations began earlier. Several incident figures come from Wikipedia’s summary of media reports and were not checked against the original reports; the air force has not published its own tally.
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| ECOWAS intervention in the GambiaECOMIGNigeriaanse luchtmacht | 2017 | Forces loyal to Yahya Jammeh | 0 | |||
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Air support for the ECOWAS force that entered the Gambia to install President Adama Barrow. ECOWAS forces entered the Gambia on 19 January 2017 at the request of Adama Barrow, sworn in that day at the Gambian embassy in Dakar. Nigeria contributed air and sea support. Jammeh left two days later without a fight in the capital. defenceWeb’s 2025 profile lists about 200 Nigerian personnel still with ECOMIG. Resultaat Jammeh left the country on 21 January 2017; Barrow returned on 26 January.
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| Intervention against the Benin coup attempt7 December 2025Nigeriaanse luchtmacht | 2025 | Military Committee for Refoundation (coup plotters) | A-29 Super Tucano | 0 | ||
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Air strikes and armed patrols over Cotonou against the soldiers who had announced President Patrice Talon’s removal. On 7 December 2025 soldiers calling themselves the Military Committee for Refoundation announced on state television that President Talon had been removed. President Tinubu ordered Nigerian fighter jets to “take over the airspace to help dislodge the coup plotters from the National TV and a military camp”, and defenceWeb reported that Nigerian Air Force aircraft carried out strikes in Benin that day. Tinubu said the forces “acted within the ambit of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance”. Benin’s government said its own forces had foiled the attempt. ECOWAS then deployed troops from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Resultaat The coup attempt failed; Benin reported 14 arrests.
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Niets komt overeen met die zoekopdracht.
Elk cijfer, gecontroleerd
- Nigeriaanse luchtmacht: geschiedenisHet idee ontstond in 1961 nadat buitenlandse luchtmachteenheden Nigeriaanse troepen naar Congo en Tanganyika hadden vervoerd; wet van het parlement in 1964; werving vanaf juni 1962; cadetten opgeleid in Ethiopië, Canada en India; Duitse technische assistentie vanaf 1963; MiG-15 en MiG-17 aangeschaft tijdens de burgeroorlog; uitbreiding 1981-1990; decreet 105 van 23 augustus 1994; zes commando's; F-7NI, ATR 42 MPA en Agusta-helikopters rond 2010; vredesmissies in Libanon (1978-1982), Tsjaad (1983), Joegoslavië, Somalië, Rwanda, Liberia en Sierra Leone.
- Nigeriaanse luchtmacht: NAF en Amnesty International versterken samenwerking op het gebied van burgerbescherming (september 2026)Luchtmachtgeneraal Edward Gabkwet: het beperken van schade aan burgers "is verankerd in de doctrine van de Nigeriaanse luchtmacht en opgenomen in de planning en uitvoering van luchtoperaties".
- defenceWeb: Afrikaans militair profiel: Nigeria (Armand Liebenberg, 5 december 2025, bijgewerkt 28 mei 2026)Strijdkrachten 135.000, waarvan 15.000 bij de luchtmacht; defensiebudget 2024 N1.647,9 miljard (ongeveer US$ 1,4 miljard, 0,70 procent van het BBP); inventaris van de luchtmacht inclusief Mi-24/35 26, T129 2 (+4), C-130 4, CH-3 2, CH-4 4, Wing Loong II 2; commandostructuur; "decennia van verwaarlozing, waardoor een groot deel van de strijdkrachten aan de grond bleef".
- defenceWeb: Nigeriaanse Super Tucano's bereiken mijlpaal van 10.000 vlieguren (augustus 2024)In ongeveer drie jaar tijd 10.000 uur, waarvan meer dan 8.500 uur tijdens operationele missies, "zonder noemenswaardige incidenten".
- The Conversation via defenceWeb: West-Afrika is het nieuwe epicentrum van terrorisme in de wereld – Nigeria breidt zijn luchtmacht uit als reactie daarop (Oyewole, Okpaleke en Ojewale, 6 augustus 2025)18.000 personeelsleden en 61 gevechtsvliegtuigen in 2024; A-29's voor US$496 miljoen; lening van US$618 miljoen goedgekeurd in oktober 2024; kritiek op onbedoelde aanvallen.
- defenceWeb: Weer een Nigeriaanse F-7Ni verloren gegaan bij een crash (17 juli 2023)Een FT-7NI ging verloren bij Makurdi op 14 juli 2023, beide piloten schoten zich met de schietstoel uit het toestel; eerdere verliezen waren er in 2011 (twee), 2012, 2015 en een botsing in de lucht in 2018 (twee vliegtuigen, één piloot gedood); 12 F-7NI en 3 FT-7NI werden geleverd tussen 2009 en 2010; nog een FT-7NI werd geschonken door Chengdu.
- defenceWeb (Reuters): Vliegtuig van Nigeriaanse luchtmacht neergehaald door vijandelijk vuur, piloot overleeft (20 juli 2021)Alpha Jet ging op 18 juli 2021 verloren aan de grens tussen Zamfara en Kaduna; piloot Abayomi Dairo schoot zichzelf met de schietstoel naar buiten; Nigeriaanse luchtmacht: "kwam onder hevig vijandelijk vuur te liggen, wat leidde tot de crash"; Reuters kon dit niet verifiëren.
- defenceWeb (Reuters): Aantal doden door luchtaanval op vluchtelingenkamp in Nigeria loopt op (23 januari 2017)Artsen zonder Grenzen: ongeveer 90 doden, mogelijk tot 170 volgens bewoners en gemeenschapsleiders; vliegtuigen cirkelden twee keer rond en lieten twee bommen vallen tijdens een hulpverleningsactie; de Nigeriaanse luchtmacht noemde het een ongeluk.
- defenceWeb (Reuters): Nigeriaans vluchtelingenkamp getroffen door luchtaanval stond niet op kaarten aangegeven – leger (21 juli 2017)Militair onderzoek: "De voornaamste oorzaak van de ongelukkige luchtaanval nabij het vluchtelingenkamp in Rann was het ontbreken van een adequate markering van het gebied."“
- ISS Africa via defenceWeb: Militaire fouten van Nigeria kostten het land zijn burgerslachtoffers (13 december 2023)Tudun Biri, 5 december 2023, drone van het Nigeriaanse leger, 120 slachtoffers gemeld; Rann: 112 doden en 97 gewonden; andere luchtaanvallen van de Nigeriaanse luchtmacht 2020-2022; Punch-telling van meer dan 425 doden door onbedoelde bombardementen 2017-2023.
- defenceWeb: Couppoging in Benin mislukt dit weekend; ECOWAS zet troepen in (8 december 2025)Vliegtuigen van de Nigeriaanse luchtmacht hebben op 7 december 2025 een aanval uitgevoerd in Benin; verklaringen van president Tinubu en de minister van Binnenlandse Zaken van Benin.
- Human Rights Watch: Sierra Leone: Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation, Rape (juli 1999), hoofdstuk over ECOMOG-misstandenIn januari 1999 bombardeerden ECOMOG-straaljagers een colonne burgers die als menselijk schild werden gebruikt in Freetown; reactie van de ECOMOG-commandant.
Cijfers geverifieerd op 1 oktober 2026. Back to the Nigerian Air Force.