Contrary
to the casualty figures in the public domain following Tuesday’s mistaken
bombing of an internally displaced persons camp in Borno State, the chairman of
Kala Balge Local Government Area, where the accident occurred, Babagana
Malarima, has said that his people buried 234 persons killed in the airstrike.
Malarima
said this on Friday when the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur
Buratai, visited to condole with the people of Rann, whose IDPs camp was the
target of an accidental aerial bombardment by the Nigerian Air Force.
But
the Defence Headquarters said yesterday that the focus now should be how to
honour the dead and not the number of those killed in the unintentional
military air strike. “The most important thing is that we are saddened by the
incident. It’s an operational error and we are sorry about it. It can happen in
operations.
Even
internationally, it has happened in Syria and Afghanistan,” Director of Defence
Information, Brig Gen Rabe Abubakar, said against the backdrop of the new
casualty figure released by the Kala Balge local government chairman. “It is an
operational error. Whether it was one person or one million persons, it is
immaterial. They are all Nigerians, what is important is to honour the victims
involved in this circumstance.”
The
air force was said to be targeting a gathering of the Boko Haram terrorist
group, when it mistakenly hit the IDPs camp, killing and injuring many persons,
including people who had fled their homes due to terror attacks and sought
refuge at the camp as well as local and foreign humanitarian aid workers. The
international aid agency, MSF, was quoted as saying that at least 50 persons
were killed, with more than 100 injured. Some reports put the death toll at
100.
But Malarima told Buratai that 234 bodies were carried away from the scene of the raid in Rann and buried. Borno State Government said two of the injured persons, who were taken to Maiduguri for treatment, also died.
But Malarima told Buratai that 234 bodies were carried away from the scene of the raid in Rann and buried. Borno State Government said two of the injured persons, who were taken to Maiduguri for treatment, also died.
The
council chairman called on the federal government to compensate the bereaved
families and others affected by the bombing. He said the volume of destruction
of lives and property was massive. He also asked the government to build roads
that would link the area to other parts of the state.
Buratai
commiserated with the people over the accident. He said he was talking with the
commanding officers to ensure there was no repeat of such mistake.
The army chief said barely two days after the Rann misfire by the air force jets, a group of Boko Haram insurgents launched an attack on the community, targeting both the traumatised civilians and the troops. But he said they were successfully repelled, with 15 terrorists killed and one captured alive with their arms and ammunition.
The army chief said barely two days after the Rann misfire by the air force jets, a group of Boko Haram insurgents launched an attack on the community, targeting both the traumatised civilians and the troops. But he said they were successfully repelled, with 15 terrorists killed and one captured alive with their arms and ammunition.
Buratai,
who was shown the corpses and weapons recovered from the insurgents,said, “The
intelligence information we got from our partners was that Boko Haram
terrorists were moving into this place and, indeed, the information was that
they were already in this place. It’s not unconnected because you saw them
coming to attack them here.
“Probably,
it must be the information that was gotten and passed to the air component for
them to take necessary action and, unfortunately, a mistake happened and it has
happened before in other places and we pray it doesn’t happen again.”
The Nigerian Air Force said it had commenced a review of its operations to unravel the cause of the accidental air raid with a view to preventing a recurrence. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, disclosed this in Lagos at a ceremony in honour of about 100 NAF officers that died in a military plane crash in 1992 at Ejigbo, Lagos.
Abubakar
said, “Although remarkable successes were achieved, the incident of January 17
in the North-east is highly regrettable and unfortunate. The days between the
incident and now have been the most painful for us.
“However, we take solace in the fact that it was in a bid to secure this same victims that this sad incident occurred.
“However, we take solace in the fact that it was in a bid to secure this same victims that this sad incident occurred.
“We are reviewing our processes to unravel how this sad incident could have occurred and to prevent future occurrences.”
Source:Thisday
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Society