This handout image received courtesy of Doctors Without Border (MSF) on January 17, 2017, shows people standing next to destruction after an air force jet accidentally bombarded a camp for those displaced by Boko Haram Islamists, in Rann, northeast Nigeria. At least 52 aid workers and civilians were killed on January 17, 2017, when an air force jet accidentally bombed a camp in northeast Nigeria
instead of Boko Haram militants,
medical charity MSF said. / AFP
PHOTO / Médecins sans Frontières
(MSF) Scores of injured people were on Wednesday airlifted to hospital for treatment after a botched air strike on Boko Haram Islamists in Nigeria killed at least 52 civilians and aid workers.
The government called Tuesday’s
incident at a camp for displaced
people a mistake and blamed the “fog of war” but aid groups working in the crisis-hit north issued strong
condemnation. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said more than 120 people were wounded in the bombing in Rann, in the far north of Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadists’ insurgency.
Six Nigerian Red Cross workers were
among the dead, while 11 others were injured, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The Borno governor Kashim Shettima has ordered public hospitals and doctors in the state capital, Maiduguri, to be on standby to receive casualties.
But there were already reports that
some casualty departments were
overwhelmed as injured people
arrived by helicopter.
– ‘Redress for victims’ –
With fears the death toll could rise,
there was condemnation from aid
agencies assisting the hundreds of
thousands of people in the region in
dire need of food, shelter, clean water
and healthcare.
“Displacement camps are supposed to
be safe havens for people fleeing war
and conflict,” said the secretary-
general of the Norwegian Refugee
Council, Jan Egeland.
“It cannot become the new normal that
‘accidental’ attacks on camps
sheltering the innocent are allowed to
happen again and again in conflict
zones,” he added in a statement.
Human Rights Watch’s senior Nigeria
researcher Mausi Segun said the
government in Abuja should provide
“prompt, adequate and effective
compensation” to victims and their
families.
“Even if there is no evidence of a
wilful attack on the camp, which
would be a war crime, the camp was
bombed indiscriminately, violating
international humanitarian law,” she
added.
“Victims should not be denied redress
merely because the government
decided the bombing was accidental.”
Accidental bombings have occurred
before in the conflict and senior
military commanders called the latest
“a mistake” yet maintained
humanitarian workers were not
targeted directly.
Major General Lucky Irabor, who
heads the counter-insurgency
operation, said the air force jet had
been told to target insurgents in the
flashpoint Kala-Balge area but hit
Rann instead.
He blamed the error on “the fog of
war”.
The aid workers were distributing food
at the military-run camp housing tens
of thousands of people.
– ‘Shocking and unacceptable’ –
Jean-Clement Cabrol, the director of
operations for MSF, called the attack
“shocking and unacceptable”.
“The safety of civilians must be
respected,” he said.
Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian
coordinator for the Sahel region, told
AFP: “Never in my 20 years of work in
crisis setting have I seen such an
incident.”
Local and international aid agencies
have until recently been unable to get
to Rann because of bad roads and
insecurity in the remote region around
Lake Chad.
The military announced last month it
has ousted Boko Haram from its camps
in Sambisa Forest, in southern Borno,
sending fighters north.
Nigeria’s military has announced an
investigation into what happened. The
Daily Trust newspaper reported that
clearly marked ICRC tents were
bombed, without quoting sources.
MSF said none of its staff was injured
or killed but disclosed that three
employees of a Cameroonian firm it
hired to provide water and sanitation
services lost their lives.
One aid worker told AFP colleagues
were “stunned” at what happened and
suggested civilians were likely to have
been caught up in previous bombing
raids in the remote region.
“I’m sure it (the bombing in Rann) is
an accident but why would they (the
Nigerian military) bomb a place that
they’re guarding?” the aid worker said
on condition of anonymity.
Ties have been strained between
humanitarian agencies and the
Nigerian authorities, who have
accused some aid organisations of
exaggerating the food crisis triggered
by the insurgency.
In December, Save the Children said
4.7 million people in the northeast
needed food assistance and some
400,000 children were at imminent
risk of starvation.
The presidency called some of the
claims “hyperbolic” while the Borno
state governor recently accused some
aid agencies of profiting from the
crisis.
