Refugee camp bombed in Nigeria
Boko Haram was target, a day after suicide attack
A child is among the wounded Tuesday after a Nigerian fighter jet battling Boko Haram militants mistakenly bombed a refugee camp in Kala Balge in northeast Nigeria. Staff from Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross were among the casualties. Doctors Without Borders, which provided medical assistance after the attack, said it counted at least 52 dead and 120 wounded.
A Nigerian fighter jet battling Boko Haram militants “misfired” and bombed a refugee camp Tuesday, killing scores of people, authorities said.
The attack devastated a camp that included personnel from Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross in Kala Balge in the embattled Borno state in northeast Nigeria. Aid workers were among the casualties, the military said.
Doctors Without Borders, which provided assistance after the attack, said it counted at least 52 dead and 120 wounded.
“This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable,” said Jean-Clément Cabrol, the group’s director of operations. “The safety of civilians must be respected.”
The Associated Press, citing a Borno state official who spoke on condition of anonymity, put the death toll at more than 100.
Cabrol called on all parties in the conflict to ensure safe passage of medical personnel via air and roads. Borno Gov. Kashim Shettima ordered all hospitals and health agencies to stand by to provide emergency medical response to victims.
The jet strike came one day after Boko Haram claimed respon- sibility for a suicide bombing at a university in Borno that killed a professor and a child and wounded more than a dozen people.
Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor told Nigerian media the military received a report about a gathering of Boko Haram terrorists in the area before launching the strike.
“I coordinated and I directed that the air component of the operation should go and address the problem,” Irabor said. “Unfortunately, the strike was conducted, but it turned out that other civilians were somewhere around the area, and they were affected.”
Soldiers and Nigerians working for Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross also were “affected,” Irabor said. The Red Cross said at least six of its personnel were killed and 13 wounded.
“We are coordinating medical emergency efforts with relevant authorities and other aid actors #Nigeria,” the group tweeted.
Boko Haram, which means “Western Education Is Forbidden,” was founded two decades ago, declaring solidarity with alQaeda in 2010 and with the Islamic State in 2015. The group made international headlines in 2014 when it kidnapped nearly 300 female students from the Borno town of Chibok. Most of the girls remain missing.
Last month, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said his forces had crushed the extremist group and driven them out of their forest encampment. That drew scorn from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who posted a video on YouTube.
“I am here, well and alive,” he said. “The battle is just beginning.”