This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/world/africa/nigerian-jet-mistakenly-bombs-refugee-camp-killing-dozens.html

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Nigerian Jet Mistakenly Bombs Refugee Camp, Killing Scores Nigerian Jet Mistakenly Bombs Refugee Camp, Killing Scores
(about 1 hour later)
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. DAKAR, Senegal — A Nigerian fighter jet searching for Boko Haram members on Tuesday accidentally bombed a camp for displaced people who had fled the militants, killing dozens of camp residents, at least six humanitarian workers and wounding numerous others.
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. The bombing struck a government-run camp in Rann, Nigeria, near the Cameroonian and Chadian borders, an area where Boko Haram had recently increased attacks.
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. Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity, said its teams in Rann had counted 52 dead and 200 wounded as they tried to provide first aid and stabilize patients in hopes of evacuating the wounded.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said its teams at the scene of the bombing counted 50 people dead and 120 injured as they provided first aid and tried to stabilize patients in hopes of evacuating the wounded. The Associated Press reported, citing a Borno State official, that the overall death toll may reach 100 or more. The Nigerian military has been locked in a fierce battle with Boko Haram fighters for years as they rampage through the country’s northeast, 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.
A helicopter sent by the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived on the scene late on Tuesday. Medical teams in Cameroon and Chad were also preparing to treat the wounded. Among the dead in the errant bombing were six workers from a Nigerian local Red Cross organization, from which 13 more were wounded, said a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Two soldiers were also wounded.
“We are in close contact with our teams, who are in shock following the event,” said Tim Shenk, a spokesman for Doctors Without Borders. A humanitarian helicopter dispatched by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross was arriving late Tuesday, and medical teams in Cameroon and Chad were being prepared to treat the wounded.
“This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable,” said Dr. Jean-Clément Cabrol, the director of operations for Doctors Without Borders. “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.”
Military officials said local workers for Doctors Without Borders had also been wounded, but the group could not confirm that.
On Tuesday afternoon, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria acknowledged the military error on his official Twitter account.
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. This week, two suicide bombers — one of them a girl about 12 years old — detonated explosives at the University of Maiduguri, where students and teachers had gathered for morning prayers. The blast killed four people, including Aliyu Usman Mani, 60, veterinary medicine professor and a father of two, and forced the university to postpone exams.
The violence has uprooted more than two million people from their homes in the region. Some of them wind up in camps like the one at Rann.
Rann is known as a hotbed of Boko Haram activity. The military had cleared the area of militants just this spring, stranding 3,000 people without food or water, according to local news reports. But with the end of a rainy season that had limited mobility, Boko Haram has regained a foothold. Late last month, a military post near Rann was attacked in a battle that lasted three hours, an indication of the strength and firepower of militants in the area.
Before the bombing on Tuesday, the Nigerian military had been informed that fighters were amassing to attack a military post nearby, according to a Western diplomat in the region. Armed with geographic coordinates of where they thought the fighters were assembled, the Air Force launched the bombing strike but hit the camp in error.
At a news conference in Maiduguri on Tuesday, Major Gen. Lucky Irabor acknowledged the mistake, calling it “disturbing.”
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Buhari pleaded for calm, calling the bombing “a regrettable operational mistake.”