Nigerian jet mistakenly bombs refugee camp, killing scores

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Nigerian jet mistakenly bombs refugee camp, killing scores

By Dionne Searcey
Updated

Dakar, Senegal: A Nigerian fighter jet searching for Boko Haram fighters on Tuesday bombed a camp for displaced people who had fled the militants, killing scores of camp residents and wounding many others, including humanitarian workers.

The bombing occurred at a government-run camp in Rann, Nigeria, near the borders with Cameroon and Chad. The camp is in an area where Boko Haram has recently increased attacks.

In this image supplied by the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, smoke rises from a burnt-out shelter at a camp for displaced people in Rann, Nigeria.

In this image supplied by the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, smoke rises from a burnt-out shelter at a camp for displaced people in Rann, Nigeria. Credit: Medecins Sans Frontieres via AP

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria said on Twitter that the camp was bombed by mistake. "I received with regret news that the air force, working to mop up BH insurgents, accidentally bombed a civilian community in Rann, Borno State," he wrote.

Government officials could not provide an exact death toll, saying they were focused on treating the wounded. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the medical charity, said its teams in Rann had counted 52 dead and 200 wounded as they tried to provide first aid and stabilise patients who were awaiting evacuation.

A guard post on Elbeid bridge that separates northern Cameroon form Nigeria's Borno state.

A guard post on Elbeid bridge that separates northern Cameroon form Nigeria's Borno state. Credit: AP

But there was little hope of evacuation until Wednesday, raising the prospect that many seriously wounded victims of the attack would die overnight as ill-equipped rescuers stood by helplessly.

The Nigerian military has been locked in a fierce battle with Boko Haram fighters for years as they rampage through the country's north-east, carrying out attacks on military positions and, more recently, frequent suicide bombings that have killed hundreds. In the government's zest for rooting out the militants, civilians have frequently ended up detained, hurt or dead.

Among the dead in the bombing were six workers from a local Red Cross organisation, said a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, adding that 13 were wounded. Two soldiers were also wounded.

"This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable," said Jean-Clement Cabrol, the director of operations for MSF. "The safety of civilians must be respected. We are urgently calling on all parties to ensure the facilitation of medical evacuations by air or road for survivors who are in need of emergency care."

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A man carries an injured child following the air strike on a camp for displaced people in Rann, Nigeria on Tuesday, January 17.

A man carries an injured child following the air strike on a camp for displaced people in Rann, Nigeria on Tuesday, January 17.Credit: Medecins Sans Frontieres via AP

Mr Buhari has said repeatedly that Boko Haram has been defeated, even as the group has carried out brutal marketplace bombings in Nigeria, Cameroon and elsewhere in recent weeks.

The bombing also came as the United States is considering selling the Nigerian government warplanes, despite objections from some officials in Congress over the military's past record of human rights abuses.

The violence has uprooted more than 2 million people from their homes in the region. Some of them wind up in camps like the one at Rann, where 20,000 people in the past six months have fled to escape Boko Haram's marauders.

The small, densely packed camp includes people living in an old schoolhouse, mud-brick homes and other structures, some of which were smashed in the bombing, said Hugues Robert, the Nigeria program manager for MSF.

The camp has been largely inaccessible for months, he said, and the charity's workers had reached Rann for the first time only in December. Workers had returned Saturday to establish a malnutrition screening clinic there.

On Tuesday, that clinic was converted into a triage centre as the wounded victims of the bombing, some with grievous injuries, jammed under the tents, lying in the soil to await treatment from the small number of medical professionals there, who were equipped to treat hunger, not blast wounds..

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Darkness had fallen by the time more help arrived, and it seemed impossible to evacuate anyone before Wednesday, Robert said. "It's really chaotic," he said. "A lot of people won't survive the night."

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