An investigation by the Intercept, an online newspaper, accused the US of playing an “unacknowledged role” in the 2017 bombing of the Rann internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Borno state.
At least 160 civilians, many of them children, were killed in the attack.
The report posted on july 28 he said the attack was “referred to as an instance” of US and Nigerian operations.
“Evidence suggests the US launched a near-unprecedented internal investigation of the attack because it secretly provided intelligence or other support to the Nigerian armed forces,” the US nonprofit news organization reports, citing a document. secret US military he obtained.
“The US investigation, the existence of which has not been previously reported, was ordered by the top US general overseeing troops in Africa and was specifically designed to prevent questions about wrongdoing or recommendations for disciplinary action.”
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the airstrike by the military in January 2017 to attack members of Boko Haram occurred.
The Nigerian military and the federal government had said “the plane was intended to attack suspected members of Boko Haram when it accidentally bombed the camp.”
The Nigerian Air Force expressed regret for carrying out the airstrike, which also “killed nine aid workers and seriously injured more than 120 people.”
John Eneche, the then defense spokesman, had said the attack took place there because it was not reflected on the operational map as a humanitarian base. “Therefore, it appeared as a place that could be used for enemy activities as well.”
“Therefore, when the mass movement was noticed through aerial satellite observation, it was taken for Boko Haram terrorist activity, which needed to be neutralized quickly,” Eneche said.
US paper
According to the report, US surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations have often been used in Nigeria, including a Predator drone flown from neighboring Chadin addition to a longer-range Global Hawk and a manned turboprop aircraft, deployed over Nigeria starting in 2014, ostensibly to search for children kidnapped by Boko Haram, the Intercept said.
The newspaper reported that “within days of the attack, the US Africa Command secretly commissioned Brig. General Frank J. Stokes conduct an investigation to determine the facts and circumstances of a kinetic airstrike (‘attack’) conducted by the Nigerian military forces in the vicinity of Rann, Nigeria”.
“His findings were never made public,” the newspaper reported, noting that “AFRICOM did not respond to his questions about the results of the Stokes investigation or the extent of US involvement in the attack.”
Relying on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the Intercept said “it is impossible to determine the full extent of US involvement in the 2017 airstrike, but official instructions from Stokes suggest the US provided intelligence or other information.” kind of support to the Nigerian Army.
“It will collect and preserve any background information that is relevant to a full understanding of US and Nigerian operations, such as this attack,” the document cited by the intercept reads.
“Stokes’ mandate included an investigation into how the US shares information with the Nigerian military, protocols related to its use, and “after-action reporting procedures when shared information is used in an attack (for example, reporting battle damage assessment).
“The formal investigation of the airstrike by an African partner was rare, if not unprecedented, and indicates that this was no ordinary Nigerian bombing gone wrong. A former Pentagon official with experience investigating civilian casualty incidents, who spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity, said he had never come across a US investigation into an allied airstrike.”
The United States denies involvement
The United States, meanwhile, has said it was not involved in the 2017 airstrike against the IDP in Rann, a remote village in Borno state.
Jeanne Clark, a spokeswoman for the US Mission in Nigeria, told PREMIUM TIMES that the United States, through its embassy in Nigeria, actively engaged the Nigerian military to ensure that security measures were put in place that could help prevent similar incidents.
Regarding the airstrike on the IDP camp, he said it was “the Nigerian Air Force” that “made changes accordingly to minimize the threat of civilian harm.”
“These changes include a US-backed air-ground integration program and training in human rights and the laws of armed conflict that have improved the Nigerian Air Force’s procedural controls,” he said in an email response to PREMIUM TIMES. .
Ms. Clark noted that the US Embassy in Nigeria “routinely engages with the Nigerian Armed Forces to strengthen civil protection and human rights practices through our security force professionalization efforts that They seek to create a modern and effective force.”
A deputy spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, Ryan Essman, issued a similar statement to The Intercept.