The Tragedy at Rann
Nigerians were still celebrating last month’s heroic recapture of Sambisa Forest by the Nigerian military when a major tragedy occurred at Rann, headquarters of Kala Balge Local Government of Borno State on Tuesday last week. Nigeria Air Force [NAF] jets on a mission to bomb Boko Haram terrorists [BHTs] instead dropped bombs on an Internally […]
Nigerians were still celebrating last month’s heroic recapture of Sambisa Forest by the Nigerian military when a major tragedy occurred at Rann, headquarters of Kala Balge Local Government of Borno State on Tuesday last week. Nigeria Air Force [NAF] jets on a mission to bomb Boko Haram terrorists [BHTs] instead dropped bombs on an Internally Displaced Persons’ [IDP] camp, killing many refugees, two soldiers and some staffers of Medicines Sans Frontiers, i.e. Doctors Without Borders.
Survivors said aid officials were distributing food at the camp when the first bomb was dropped, leading to many deaths and injuries. They said a second bomb was dropped shortly afterwards. NAF later described the incident as “an accidental air strike” and said it was “saddened” by it. President Muhammadu Buhari called it a “regrettable operational mistake,” cancelled a Federal Executive Council meeting the next day and despatched a team led by his Chief of Staff Malam Abba Kyari to go and commiserate with the government and people of Borno State. Kyari later said, “The President and C-in-C is very distressed about the incident… This kind of incident happens occasionally in war, especially when dealing with terrorists like Boko Haram who arbitrarily and in cowardly fashion hide among civilians. The Armed Forces will take extra care to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Borno State government, aid agencies and the military mounted a heroic emergency rescue effort. While the few available doctors on the ground provided first aid, NAF and United Nations Humanitarian Air Services provided seven helicopters that evacuated the most severely wounded persons to Maiduguri. Governor Kashim Shettima sent his deputy Usman Mamman Durkwa to coordinate the evacuations from Rann while the governor coordinated efforts in Maiduguri where three major hospitals received about 70 victims. These were the State Specialist Hospital, the Army 7th Division’s military hospital and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
Borno State Commissioner for Health Dr Haruna Mshelia provided an update on Thursday. He said of the victims brought to Maiduguri from Rann, five were treated and discharged, two had died and 73 were still on admission. The commissioner was however silent on the total number of casualties, saying all stakeholders must first reconcile their records. Aid agencies had earlier said up to 100 persons died at the scene of the air strikes.
On Thursday NAF constituted a board of senior officers to investigate the accidental air strike. The board was given up to February 2 to submit its findings. Its terms of reference include determining the immediate and remote causes as well as the circumstances that led to the incident with a view to forestall future occurrence. Heading the six-member board is Air Vice Marshal Salihu Bala-Ribah, Chief of Standards and Evaluation at Air Force Headquarters.
Some indications have already emerged as to what may have caused the monumental tragedy. Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor said in Maiduguri, “This morning, we received a report about the gathering of Boko Haram terrorists around Kala Balge area. I coordinated and I directed that the air component of the operation should go and address the problem. Unfortunately, the strike was conducted but it turned out that other civilians were somewhere around the area and they were affected.” That means the strike was officially ordered but something went horribly wrong along the way. News agencies quoted a local man as saying that Boko Haram insurgents that fled from Sambisa were congregating at nearby Kala, which was the strike’s likely target.
It is difficult to understand how such a mistake could occur when, even from the air, a gathering of IDPs receiving relief food should look very different in scale and organisation from a gathering of BHTs. NAF and Theatre Command of Operation Lafiya Dole have often showed film clips of aerial reconnaissance and interdiction operations. The quality of the film clips was such that BHTs can often be seen climbing into wagons or running away from bombs. With such quality aerial assets, even if pilots were supplied with the wrong coordinates, it should have been possible to visually observe that this was the wrong target.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed, who recently led a media mission to the Air Force Base at Yola, suggested as much when he said, “One of the things we went away with after spending some two days at the Tactical Air Command in Yola is the strict adherence to operational guidelines and the high level of professionalism of the officers and men, especially the young pilots who fly high-risk missions day and night. Among others, we witnessed pre- and post-mission briefings for the pilots, the high attention paid to detail, especially concerning emergencies and weather, and the evacuation plan in case of accidents. We heard that on several occasions during their sorties, fighter pilots have had to hold their fire after observing the movement of women and children in Sambisa. We also witnessed the same careful disposition when we flew to Sambisa with the pilots. It therefore came to me as a rude shock to learn, a few hours after leaving Yola, that one of the fighter jets has accidentally bombed civilians, including aid workers.”
While awaiting the NAF report to find out how such careful operations went horribly wrong at Rann, we commiserate with the people and government of Borno State on this horrible tragedy. We pray for the repose of the souls of the dead and quick recovery of the injured.