An airstrike by a Nigerian army drone mistakenly killed at least 85 civilians in a village in Kaduna State in the northwest of the country, emergency officials said, in one of the deadliest military bombing incidents in the country.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered an investigation on Tuesday after the army admitted that one of its drones accidentally struck the village of Tudun Wada while residents were celebrating an Islamic festival.

The army did not specify casualty figures, but local residents said 85 people, many of them women and children, were killed.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in a statement: “The Northwest Zone office received details from local authorities that 85 bodies have been buried so far while the search continues.”

The agency said 66 others are receiving hospital treatment, but emergency officials are still negotiating with local community leaders to ease tensions so they can access the village.

The presidency said in a statement, "President Tinubu describes the incident as very unfortunate, distressing, and painful, expressing his outrage and sorrow over the tragic loss of Nigerian lives."

The Nigerian armed forces often rely on airstrikes in their battle against so-called bandit militias in the northwest and northeast of the country, where militants have been fighting for more than a decade.