Reports say at least 52 persons have been killed and many injured after a Nigerian fighter jet mistakenly bombed an Internally Displaced Persons, IDP Camp in Rann, Kala-Balge Local Government area of Borno state.
The MSF, whose officials were present at the Rann camp in Borno
State when the incident occurred, has confirmed another 120 people were injured
from the incident in a statement issued to the media.
Although the Nigerian military has taken responsibility for the
attack, they are yet to provide its casualty figures.
According to
Jean-Clément Cabrol, MSF’s Director of Operations, “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. 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.”
The
Theatre Commander of Nigerian forces in Borno, Lucky Irabor, a major general,
confirmed that he authorised the bombing.
“This
morning today, we received reports about gathering of Boko Haram terrorists
somewhere in Kala Balge Local Government area of Borno State. We got a
coordinate and I directed that the air should go to address the problem.
“Unfortunately
the strike was conducted but it turned out that the locals somewhere in Rann
were affected.
“We are
yet to get the details of the casualties. But we have some civilians that have
been killed, others are wounded and we also have two of our soldiers that were
also wounded. Among some that are wounded are local staffs of the Medicine Sans
Frontiers as well as ICRC,” he said.
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