A foreign country allegedly provided Nigeria with information that led to the accidental bombing of IDP camp
- A source said the country has always been providing intelligence
- An official but classified investigation has started
There are emerging reports that a foreign country provided false intelligence to Nigeria on the location of Boko Haram terrorists leading to the accidental bombing of an IDP camp.
The tragic incident happened on Tuesday, January 17 at the Rann IDP camp is located in Kala-balge local government area and it caters for thousands of persons displaced by Boko Haram.
About 72 persons were reported dead including aid workers from the Red Cross while more than a hundred were confirmed injured.
Aftermath of the accidental IDP camp bombing
The Nation reports that a source close to the intelligence community who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the accidental bombing was due to information provided by a foreign country that has been helping in the fight against terrorism.
The source also said there was no synergy of information between the military, emergeny management authority and thr Borno state government.
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.”
Some of the survivors of the accidental bomb explosion at IDPcamp
“Yet, we cannot blame the foreign country because it had always given credible intelligence to the military, especially on Operation Lafiya Dole.”
Another source revealed that a classified investigation has started and involved the military and security operatives.
He said: “It is going to be a comprehensive audit of the information available to the Tactical Air Command, the directives given to the pilot and his crew, how the flight took off, why the plane could not distinguish a settlement from insurgents’ clusters and why the bombing was done.
“It is going to be a classified investigation because a lot of international and national forces/ intelligence agencies are collaborating in the Northeast.”
“I think we will all come out stronger after this investigation. This is an Air Force that has recorded 6,000 hours of counter-insurgency missions without hurting any civilian. Everyone is actually sad here.”
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