The United Nations Security Council may have concluded arrangements to drag the Nigerian military before the world body’s war crime tribunal at the Hague, Switzerland, over the recent accidental bombing and killing of some 300 persons at an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Sources within the Nigerian Airforce Headquarters in Abuja told our correspondent that the UN Security Council was not treating the mistaken bombing of the IDPs camp in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in January this year, with levity.
It was gathered that the recent visit to the country by a team of the United Nations Security Council was to conclude preliminary findings before the council would press charges against Nigeria’s Armed Forces at the War Crimes Tribunal.
Some military top brass are also said to have been “marked” for prosecution by the UN War Crimes Tribunal over the incident.
A source added that human rights groups, which had previously criticised the military for conducting a probe into the bombing without involving a broader group of investigators, including the civil society, had petitioned the UN, asking it to conduct its own investigations into the matter.
Commander and Coordinator of Operation Lafiya Dole in the troubled North Eastern part of Nigeria, Major General Leo Irabor, in a telephone chat with our correspondent, confirmed the development but insisted that the UN Security Council team’s presence in the country was normal.
“They have come to cross-check some facts. Remember, the Airforce had earlier conducted investigation into the matter.
So, they have come to see what the Airfore did and that is normal. It is the right thing to do,” Irabor said.
A global human rights group, Amnesty International, in its petition had alleged that the Nigerian military jet that bombed the camp might have been flown by an amateur, arguing that the surveillance intelligence given to the pilot might have been orchestrated towards achieving just that particular target.
AI stressed that the incident could have been prevented, but was not, and stated that the report of investigation allegedly conducted by the NAF into the bombing was one-sided and left many grey areas.
A senior Nigerian military officer had told the visiting UN officials that the cause of the accidental bombing of IDPs camp in the country’s northeast in January was the result of “incorrect coordinates.”
Irabor told the visiting U.N. Security Council delegation last Sunday that the January 17 bombing in the town of Rann, which killed 236 civilians, was a “grave mistake” that was the result of faulty information.
“The coordinates that were received gave in dications that there were presence of Boko Haram within the vicinity. It’s just that the wrong coordinates were utterly given,” he said.
Irabor further said that although he was not trying to justify the military’s error, two days after the accidental bombing, Boko Haram fighters did attack the town located in Borno State, the epicenter of the group’s insurgency.
“Wherein that we killed 15 Boko Haram terrorists, and a vehicle mounted with an antiaircraft gun was also recovered, amongst other weapons that were recovered from the Boko Haram terrorists.
So that, of course, gives some correlation as to what intelligence we received before that encounter,” said Irabor.
In the incident, a military jet dropped two bombs on the camp for displaced persons in Rann. At the time of the attack, aid distribution was taking place and many women and children were killed.
Also, at least nine humanitarian workers from the Nigerian Red Cross and the International Committee for the Red Cross were killed.
A delegation of U.N. Security Council ambassadors visited Maiduguri on Sunday to see conditions at an IDP camp and met with the military for a briefing on their battle against Boko Haram.
British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, who is the president of the council this month and a co-leader of the mission to West Africa, welcomed the investigation into the bombing.
“Bearing in mind the importance of accountability and learning lessons, I’m glad that the Rann camp incident is being followed up with an investigation and encourage you to make that public when possible and make sure measures are put in place to prevent a recurrence,” he said.
