An official of the Borno State Government, one of those helping to coordinate the evacuation of the injured by helicopter, where an air force jet acci
An official of the Borno State Government, one of those helping to coordinate the evacuation of the injured by helicopter, where an air force jet accidentally bombed a camp in northeast Nigeria instead of Boko Haram militants, on Tuesday, has said that no fewer than 100 people had been killed. The medical charity, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) later put the figure of the dead at 95, admitting that it had yet to confirm the figure.
The incident happened in Rann, far north of Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadists’ insurgency, just as food was being distributed to displaced people. There has been no official death toll from the military, which blamed ‘the fog of war’ for the mistake, but one senior commander described the casualties from the air strike as huge. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said six Nigerian Red Cross members were among those killed while 13 others were injured and have called the attack shocking and unacceptable.
Reacting to news of the accidental bombing, President Muhammadu Buhari said that he received with regret, news of the bombing and that he sympathised with the families of the dead and injured. The bombing comes as the military claims further gains against the Islamic State group affiliate, pushing them out of captured territory and their remote bases in Borno.
Last month, the army said the conflict was in its final stages after nearly eight years of violence that has killed at least 20,000 and left more than 2.6 million others homeless. Major General Lucky Irabor, who heads operations against the militants, said the air force had been given coordinates of Boko Haram terrorists in the Kala-Balge area.
“Unfortunately the strike was conducted but it turned out that the locals somewhere in Rann were affected,” he told reporters.
“These are the result of fog of war,” he added. “It is unfortunate. That is the reason why this war must come to an end.”
Defence spokesman Rabe Abubakar in Abuja described the incident as a mistake, adding,
“We are actually in grief. It’s unfortunate and it’s really not intended.”
MSF and the ICRC said its teams were trying to provide emergency first aid at its facility in the camp and were stabilising patients to evacuate the wounded from the scene. However, Jean-Clement Cabrol, MSF’s director of operations, condemned the error.
“This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable. The safety of civilians must be respected,” he said.
Accidental bombings have occurred in the past. In March 2014 an air force jet killed five and wounded several others when it mistakenly hit Kayamla village in the Konduga area of Borno. The fighter jet mistook the village for a Boko Haram camp during a night raid. In January that year, the convoy of a Nigerian senator was fired on by an air force jet which mistook the six-vehicle convoy under police and military escort for Boko Haram fighters. No one was hurt and the military described the incident as an operational blunder.
