By The Defence Headquarters on Friday released the report on the mistake bombing of Internally Displaced Persons residing in a camp near Rann in Borno State. The erroneous airstrike was committed by the Nigerian Air Force on January 17th, 2017 in an attempt to bomb members of the boko haram terrorist group.
According to the Defence Spokesperson, Major General John Enenche the airstrike was caused by lack of appropriate marking of the area which caused the IDPs camp to be struck in the act.
Briefing journalists on the report, Enenche said, “Hitherto, people were not expected to amass at that location. Furthermore, the location was not reflected in the operational map as a humanitarian base. The normal pattern for Boko Haram terrorists to form up, before attacking innocent civilians and troops is to amass.”
“Hence, it appeared as a place that could equally be used for enemy activities. Thus, when mass movement was noticed through aerial satellite observation, it was taken for Boko Haram Terrorists activity, which needed to be neutralized with speed”.
Accordingly, the Defence Headquarters recommended that all locations where humanitarian activities take place in the theatre of operations should be marked appropriately for ground and aerial identification in line with international best practices.
“The geographical and spatial coordinates of all areas of humanitarian activities within the theatre, should be provided to the Theatre Command Headquarters.
“There should be timely and mandatory exchange of information between stakeholders, for all activities in the Theatre of operation”, Enenche said.
