Six months after, 97 Rann bombing victims await compensation

Olaleye Aluko, Abuja

Six months after a Nigerian Air Force fighter jet accidentally bombed an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Rann, Borno State, more than 97 injured have yet to be compensated by the military, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

Our correspondent gathered that a panel report by the Air Force on the bombing had been submitted to the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, since the first week of April, but no further step had allegedly been taken.

It would be recalled that more than 100 IDPs and aid workers were killed in an accidental strike by the NAF jet on January 17, 2017 in Rann, Kala Balge Local Government Area.

The air strike was meant to take out Boko Haram insurgents, whose location was sighted somewhere in Kala Balge.

According to figures released by Operation Lafiya Dole, the military anti-insurgency operation in the North-East, 112 persons died from the incident, while 97 others were injured.

An international medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, had previously said the death toll from the incident in Rann could be as high as 170.

The NAF had on January 19, 2017 constituted a six-man panel, headed by the Chief of Standards and Evaluation, Air Vice Marshal Salihu Bala-Ribbah, to investigate the accidental bombing.

A source at the NAF headquarters had told our correspondent in April that the panel report was submitted discreetly to the office of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, and thereafter forwarded to the Defence Headquarters.

The source added that some officers at the Air Component Base, Yola, Adamawa State, from where the fighter jet was deployed, risked being indicted.

Our correspondent learnt on Friday that the military authorities had yet to take further steps on the Air Force panel report, while no compensation had reached the 97 injured victims.

A source working with one of the international aid agencies told our correspondent that the Rann community deserved a medical facility from the NAF, as same was done for Dalori and Bama areas.

“Since August 2016, the NAF has been operating Level 2 Emergency Hospitals in Bama and Dalori IDPs camp. It beats the imagination that nothing concrete has been done in Rann, where a NAF fighter jet accidentally dropped bomb. Rann is still suffering. Most of the locals are displaced, and the terrain is difficult,” she said.

The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, confirmed that the panel report on the accidental bombing had been forwarded to the Defence Headquarters.

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Source: Punchng
Six months after, 97 Rann bombing victims await compensation

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