A Military jet bomber on Tuesday killed several civilians in Borno state, northeast Nigeria while targeting Boko Haram members.
Several others were wounded, among them, humanitarian aid workers from the International Committee on Red Cross (ICRC) and Doctors Without Border (MSF).
“We got information that Boko Haram terrorists were gathering somewhere in Kala Balge Local Government. We coordinate our air component and strike the location but somehow, some civilians were killed,” said Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen Lucky Irabor.
“It is too early for us to determine whether it was an error or not. We have at no time targeted the civilians whenever we carried out our operations and wherever they are gathered,” he maintained.
He said the military was yet to ascertain the number of persons killed in the airstrike, but MSF said, it had counted more than 50 dead bodies.
Unconfirmed sources said the bomb fell on Internally Displaced Persons Camp (IDPs), killing over 100 people.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in a tweet said “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.
