EXPOSED: Air Force jet hit IDPs after foreign alert • Death toll now 76

After the initial shock over the accidental bombing of an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Rann, Borno State, questions started coming from all angles on how it happened?

According to a source, who gave technical  insights into how the error occurred,  the incident was due to “failure of intelligence"

The source said: “What happened was that a foreign nation, which had been assisting in the counter-insurgency, provided an intelligence alert on the regrouping of some insurgents in Rann.

“The foreign country based its alert on what its surveillance radar picked. The alert indicated that the insurgents must be smoked out as early as possible. It was on this basis that the Air Force deployed its jet.

“The error occurred because the IDPs camp was not among the list of camps made available to the Air Force. There is a strong suspicion that the camp was recently set up by emergency bodies and Borno State without updating the list given to the military.”

The source pleaded that the country’s name should not be revealed. He stressed that there was no coordination between the military and the emergency bodies on the camp in Rann.

“Yet, we cannot blame the foreign country because it had always given credible intelligence to the military, especially on Operation Lafiya Dole,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC) said yesterday no fewer than 76 people were killed in Tuesday’s accidental Air Force strike on IDPs’ camp and more than 100 injured. This raised the death toll above the 52 announced by Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), after the fatal strike.

The ICRC said six Nigeria Red Cross members were killed and 13 injured. “In addition to aid staff, it is estimated that 70 people have been killed and more than a hundred wounded,” it said in a statement.

Culled from the Nation.