Marine Corps raises family separation pay to $300

Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes in Nigeria’s northeastern Yobe state on Saturday, according to local residents and Amnesty International, as military aircraft targeted Islamist militants.

The strikes hit Jilli village, with casualty estimates varying by source. Amnesty International said on X that there were “more than 100 dead” and 35 people seriously wounded.

“We have their pictures and they include children,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s Nigeria director, told The Associated Press. “We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital. We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims.”

Local chief Lawan Zanna Nur said “the total casualties, dead and injured, is around 200.” He said many victims were taken to hospitals in nearby Geidam and Maiduguri, where at least eight more of the wounded died Sunday.

“We are talking of dozens dead but it is difficult to give a specific toll,” he said.

A market committee member, Bulama Mulima Abbas, told AFP that “36 bodies have been counted” after the airstrike “on the traders.”

Nigeria’s military said it struck a location in Jilli “long identified as a major terrorist movement corridor and convergence point for Islamic State West Africa Province terrorists and their collaborators.” It described the attack as “a carefully, well coordinated planned and intelligence-driven operation” and said it “successfully conducted a precision air strike on a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli.”

The military said “scores of terrorists” were killed, but did not mention civilian casualties. The Nigerian Air Force later said it had activated its Civilian Harm Accident and Investigation Cell “to immediately proceed to the location on a fact-finding mission on the allegation.”

An intelligence source told AFP that Jilli market “is wholly controlled by Boko Haram who provides security and collect tax from traders.”

Nigeria has fought a jihadist insurgency since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising. The conflict, which later included the Islamic State West Africa Province, has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced about 2 million, according to the United Nations.

Pope Leo XIV will visit Algeria from April 13 to 15, becoming the first pope to travel to the country.

His itinerary includes the Great Mosque of Algiers, a meeting with Algeria’s small Christian community at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, and a trip to Annaba, the ancient city of Hippo Regius, where St. Augustine served as bishop in the fifth century.

Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, the French-born cardinal of Algiers, said he invited Leo on May 8, the day of his election and the feast day commemorating Algeria’s 19 martyrs, priests and nuns killed during the civil war.

Algeria welcomed the visit when it was announced in February, calling it a chance to strengthen ties with the Vatican and expand cooperation. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had already met Leo in a private audience in 2025, three months after his election.

Analysts said the trip marked a shift in relations. Algeria had never hosted a pope, while Morocco hosted John Paul II in 1985 and Francis in 2019, and Tunisia hosted John Paul II in 1996.

The visit comes as rights groups continue to raise concerns about religious freedom in Algeria. Open Doors ranks Algeria 20th on its World Watch List. A 2006 law requires non-Muslim religious groups to obtain state approval and allows prison terms of up to five years for attempting to convert a Muslim. François Mabille of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs said Catholic authorities are viewed differently by the state because they do not pursue conversion.