Scores Feared Dead As Nigerian Jet Accidentally Drops Bomb On Borno Settlement

A Nigerian military plane accidentally dropped a bomb inside a settlement in Borno State, killing several persons, military authorities said on Tuesday.

The spokesman for the military Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, confirmed the incident to Channels Television.

He explained that that it was an error deeply regretted by the military.

The military spokesman said the incident did not occur in an Internally Displaced Persons’ camp, as being reported by in some quarters but a settlement said to be occupied by civilians.

Brigadier General Abubakar explained that soldiers got information of movement of Boko Haram members in the Kala-balge area and deployed ground troops and air cover to tackle the terrorists.

According to him, it was the air support that mistakenly dropped the bomb.

In a statement, the Nigerian Air Force commiserated with those affected and their families, promising to give update on the incident as soon as detailed facts emerge from the investigation.  

Hospitals in Maiduguri have been told to be prepared to receive and promptly treat the injured.

In an audio recording released on Monday and purportedly recorded by their leader, Abubakar Shekau, the group said: “There is no need for long explanation. The bomb that went off in the University of Maiduguri today in the morning, our brothers detonated them. May Allah accept their souls.

“Do not deceive the people by saying it is a mosque. What mosque? Where you carry out unbelief? Has the prophet ever done anything like democracy in his mosque? You keep disrespecting the Prophet Mohammed”.

Clearance of Boko Haram terrorists is ongoing in the region, with the Nigerian Air Force carrying out aerial bombardment of fleeing members of the group weeks after they were chased out of their last bastion in Sambisa forest.

On Monday, the Air Force released a video of a strike on a location it described as Boko Haram’s new hideout about one nautical mile south of Tumbum Rego in northern Borno.

Fighter jets and helicopter gunship of the Air Force assaulted the location in a coordinated day and night operation following Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) report that Boko Haram insurgents who attacked own Surface Forces at Kangarwa the night of January 12, 2017 had withdrawn to the said location.