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A major joint rescue operation by Ugandan police and animal welfare groups has freed dozens of dogs held at bogus animal rescue shelters, where the animals were exploited to run fraudulent international fundraising schemes, the operation was launched after an undercover investigative project by the BBC.

Officers executed raids on two neighboring fake shelter facilities in Mityana, central Uganda, where the scam operation was based. One suspect, 54-year-old Owen Godfrey Membe, has been taken into custody, while two other individuals linked to the racket remain at large, according to animal rights activists working on the case.

Membe has entered a plea of not guilty to a single count of animal cruelty brought under Uganda’s 100-year-old Animals (Prevention of Cruelty) Act, which accuses him of killing an animal through unnecessarily cruel methods. He has been remanded in custody ahead of a next court hearing scheduled for 27 May.

All dogs seized during the raids, including animals from Membe’s operation and a connected nearby scam facility, remain at the original shelter sites but are now under the care of Animal Welfare Alliance Uganda (AWAU), a coalition of local and international animal protection groups focused on dismantling organized animal exploitation networks. The coalition, which includes board-certified veterinary professionals, has already secured a plot of land to build an emergency temporary shelter where the rescued dogs will receive ongoing care, treatment, and eventually be matched with adopters.

The prosecution against Membe is being handled as a private case by the Animal Justice Center, a Ugandan animal rights legal organization, with financial backing from We Won’t Be Scammed, a UK-based community group that conducts targeted online investigations to expose fraudulent animal rescue operations based in East Africa.

The legal action and rescue come one month after the BBC published its undercover investigation, which lifted the lid on a widespread scam ring in Mityana that manipulates photos and videos of distressed dogs to trick animal lovers across Europe and North America into donating hundreds of thousands of pounds. The scheme, which has grown rapidly over the past three years as social media algorithm changes prioritized emotional animal content, sees scammers create dozens of fake shelter accounts to harvest donations from well-meaning donors.

Secret filming by the BBC’s Africa Eye investigative unit found that instead of directing funds to veterinary care and shelter upkeep, most of the scammers funneled the donated money into high-end personal purchases including new motorcycles, designer clothing, and private housing.

Most disturbing of all, the investigation uncovered multiple confirmed cases where scammers intentionally injured healthy dogs to create graphic, shareable content that would drive higher donations. One high-profile case highlighted by the BBC was that of Russet, a mixed-breed dog who suffered devastating severe leg injuries that were shared across dozens of scam social media accounts alongside urgent calls for emergency treatment funding.

BBC investigators traced Russet’s journey from the Mityana fake shelters to a private veterinary clinic in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, where the operating surgeon concluded the dog’s leg injuries were most likely intentionally inflicted to generate fundraising content. Despite emergency surgery, Russet did not survive his injuries.

Bart Kakooza, vice-chairperson of AWAU, called the arrest a watershed moment for efforts to crack down on the growing scam industry. “This is the first arrest since the entire world saw how what started as small-time begging has developed into a full-fledged online scamming business built on animal suffering,” Kakooza said in an interview after the raids.

“The entire global community is now watching to see whether Uganda’s judicial system will hold these exploiters accountable, and whether we can deliver on our promise to give these rescued dogs a new chance at a life free from cruelty and exploitation,” he added.

The investigation has sparked international outcry from animal welfare groups, who are calling on social media platforms to implement stricter verification processes for animal rescue accounts soliciting donations, to prevent similar exploitation from occurring on their platforms.

ABUJA, NIGERIA — A deadly airstrike targeting alleged armed militants in northwestern Nigeria has once again left scores of civilians dead, fueling renewed questions about the counterinsurgency practices of a key U.S. security partner in the fight against regional extremism and organized armed violence. The incident, which unfolded Sunday in the market of Tumfa, Zamfara State, has claimed the lives of at least 100 civilians — including multiple children, according to Amnesty International’s Nigeria branch. A senior state-level Red Cross official corroborated the airstrike to the Associated Press, confirming the deaths of multiple civilian non-combatants.

Nigeria’s military has publicly rejected claims of civilian harm, however. Major General Michael Onoza confirmed that an airstrike was carried out at the Tumfa market location, but claimed there is “no verifiable evidence of civilian casualties.” He added that counterinsurgency operations are still ongoing across the area.

Accidental civilian deaths from mistaken military airstrikes are not a new issue in Nigeria’s conflict-affected northern regions, where security forces rely heavily on aerial bombardment to target scattered armed group hideouts. Unlike conventional military forces, these non-state fighters typically travel in large groups on motorcycles across remote forest and village areas that are largely inaccessible to Nigerian ground troops, making air attacks a go-to tactic for military command.

Data collected by Lagos-based independent research firm SBM Intelligence, which aggregates on-the-ground reports from conflict-impacted communities, shows that mistaken military airstrikes have killed more than 500 civilians across Nigeria since 2017. While Nigerian authorities have on rare occasions acknowledged accidental civilian casualties from these operations, local residents and security analysts agree such incidents are growing more frequent. Nigeria’s Defense Minister Christopher Musa has pushed back against this criticism, asserting that the military has made tangible progress improving its human rights record and holds service members accountable for errors.

The United States, a key security ally to Nigeria, recently deployed additional U.S. troops and surveillance drones to the country to provide intelligence and logistics support for counterinsurgency operations. It remains unclear whether intelligence provided by the U.S. was used to plan and execute the latest Sunday airstrike.

Beyond the well-documented Boko Haram insurgency that launched in 2009 to establish a radical Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria, dozens of separate armed factions operate across the country’s northwest and central regions. Most of these groups originated from long-simmering conflicts between pastoralist communities and farming populations competing for access to shrinking land and water resources. Once armed only with basic weapons, these factions now have access to large stockpiles of illegally smuggled firearms, fueling a crisis that kills thousands of Nigerians annually.

Analysts note that these armed groups carry out mass casualty attacks and kidnappings for ransom across the northwest, while also extorting illegal “taxes” from local communities to fund their operations. With little sustained security presence in many remote rural villages, fighters can launch multi-day attacks and then evade detection by relocating frequently and blending into civilian populations.

Nigerian government officials have long argued that avoiding civilian casualties is uniquely challenging in this conflict because armed groups deliberately use local civilians as human shields. “Bandits and terrorists, unlike professional soldiers, don’t respect the rules of engagement. They don’t care about killing their hostages if they come under attack,” former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari previously stated.

But Abuja-based security analyst Senator Iroegbu argues that the consistent pattern of civilian deaths stems from more than insurgent tactics: gaps in intelligence gathering, and poor coordination between ground troops, air command and local community stakeholders also play a major role.

While the Nigerian government and military have repeatedly promised to launch post-incident investigations to prevent future accidental civilian deaths, analysts say these probes rarely result in meaningful policy or procedural changes. In 2024, military officials took a rare step forward by prosecuting two service members in connection with a 2023 airstrike that killed more than 80 civilians in Kaduna State. While authorities promised to release the full public investigation report for that incident, no document has been made public to date.

Oluwole Ojewale, a security researcher with the Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies, says long-term reform requires targeted investment: improved pilot training, upgraded aircraft and modern precision targeting systems are critical to reducing accidental casualties. Beyond equipment and training, Ojewale adds that the military must first rebuild trust with local communities, whose on-the-ground intelligence about armed group movements is irreplaceable for accurate targeting of militant hideouts.