Botched air raid death toll rises
International aid agencies call for medical assistance before there are any more fatalities from hit on camp for displaced
MAIDUGURI // The civilian death toll from an air raid in northeast Nigeria that was supposed to target Boko Haram rose to 70 yesterday, and aid agencies said more could die without urgent treatment.
Nigeria called Tuesday’s incident at a camp for displaced people in Rann a mistake and blamed the “fog of war”, sparking condemnation from aid agencies in the region.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which lost six members of its Nigerian affiliate, said: “It is estimated that 70 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded.”
ICRC surgeon Laurent Singa, part of a team dispatched to Rann shortly after the bombing, described the conditions for post-operative care as “not adequate”.
“All the patients must be evacuated to Maiduguri as soon as possible,” he said.
Nine patients were said to be in a critical condition and were moved to Maiduguri on Tuesday. Forty- six of the 90 who remained were said to be “severely injured”.
They needed to be transferred “as a matter of urgency”, the ICRC said, adding: “Patients are attended to in an open-air space in a precarious environment.”
Public hospitals and doctors in the city were put on standby to receive the wounded but there were reports that some casualty departments were overwhelmed.
Aid agencies assisting the hundreds of thousands of people in north-east Nigeria in need of food, shelter, clean water and health care expressed shock and dismay at the bombing.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, described it as “a truly catastrophic event”, and called for a full investigation to prevent any repeat. Jean- Clement Cabrol, the director of operations for the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, called the attack “shocking and unacceptable”.
The secretary- general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said: “Displacement camps are supposed to be safe havens for people fleeing war and conflict. “It cannot become the new normal that ‘ accidental’ attacks on camps sheltering the innocent are allowed to happen again and again.” The government in Abuja should provide some “prompt, adequate and effective com- pensation” to victims and their families, said Human Rights Watch’s senior Nigeria researcher, Mausi Segun.
“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.” Maj Gen Lucky Irabor, who heads the counter-insurgency operation, said the air force jet had been told to target insurgents in the Kala-Balge area but hit Rann instead.
The aid workers were distributing food at the military- run camp that houses tens of thousands of people. Accidental bombings have occurred before in the conflict.