BEVERLY HILLS, January 21, (THEWILL) – Nigerian soldiers have killed 15 Boko Haram fighters, who were part of insurgents responsible for the mistaken deployment of rockets by air force fighter jet on an internally displaced persons, IDPs camp in Rann, Borno state.
The Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, who stated this on Friday when he paid a visit to troops of 3 Battalion, disclosed that two days after the accident, the Boko Haram fighters returned to Rann in two gun trucks, but were repelled by the soldiers.
He said while one insurgent, suspected to be a foreigner, was captured, others escaped with one gun truck.
The army chief added that the troops recovered the other truck with weapons, including one General Purpose Machine Gun, three AK47 and ammunition.
Regretting that the weapons mistakenly hit the IDPs camp in the town, he stated that “two of our soldiers were also affected in the unfortunate incident”.
Buratai, while describing the incident as unfortunate and big mistake, said, “We have all learnt lessons from it”.
“We will take note of this; the issue of coordination and passage of the right information will help to prevent such incident again.
“It is a mistake which can happen and it has happened in other places. We pray it never happen again,” he said, urging troops not to allow the unfortunate incident to demoralise them.
He charged the soldiers to remain committed, dedicated and patriotic, assuring them that their efforts would be rewarded.
The COAS also met with elders of the community and condoled with them over the incident.
In his remarks, the Commanding Officer of 3 Battalion, Lt.-Col. I. P. Omoke, stated that Rann was one of the last towns retaken from Boko Haram insurgents on March 22, 2016.
He added that since then, the terrorists had made five failed attempts to attack the town, which is the headquarters of Kala Balge Local Government Area of Borno state, but never succeeded.
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