Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said his military “accidentally bombed”�civilians in the country’s north-east on Tuesday after an aid organization said 52 people were killed in a Nigerian airstrike on a refugee camp.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF)�said staff workers were trying to provide first aid and evacuate at least 120 wounded people from the camp, located in Rann near the border Cameroon border.
Buhari expressed sympathy for the families of those killed and injured, adding the Nigerian Air Force had been targeting Boko Haram militants in the operation.
“The federal government will fully support the Borno state government in dealing with the situation and attending to the victims,”�Buhari wrote on Twitter.
Mohammed Bashir told dpa from Maiduguri that his 23-year-old son, an aid worker for the Red Cross, was killed in the airstrike.
“Twenty of them went to distribute food at the IDP camp and the information we have is that many of them – including my son – were killed,”�Bashir said.
“Today is the food distribution day at the camp, so many people were at the IDP camp when the incident happened,”�Bashir added.
Major General Lucky Irabor told reporters in Maiduguri that the military had not yet ascertained how many were killed.
While saying that the military would investigate, Irabor added that “it is too early for us to determine whether it was an error or not.”
MSF�called on the authorities to take the necessary steps to facilitate medical evacuations by air or road for those in need of emergency care.
Medical and surgical teams in Cameroon and Chad are ready to treat wounded patients, MSF added.
Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has launched offensives in Nigeria, as well as in neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The group’s goal is to enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as sharia.
Since 2009, at least 14,000 people have died at the hands of the Sunni fundamentalists in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. According to the United Nations, an estimated 2.7 million people in the region have fled their homes due to Boko Haram.