Nigerian jet bombs refugee camp, kills more than 100

A Nigerian air force fighter jet bombed a refugee camp, killing more than 100 refugees and wounding aid workers.

The incident took place in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, where the military has been fighting the militant group Boko Haram.

Aid organisations and the local military said the strike hit a camp for internally displaced people in Rann, part of the Kala-Balge local government area on the Cameroon border. Regional military commander Major General Lucky Irabor confirmed the incident but said he did not know how many people were killed.

"Many civilians including personnel of International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were wounded," he said.

Major General Irabor claimed the attack was a mistake, based on intelligence that Boko Haram fighters were in the region. Nigerian army is widely accused of grave human rights abuses and killing unarmed civilians but it for the first time the military has admitted to such an error.

On December 12, 2015, Nigerian soldiers attacked Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in the city of Zaria and killed 348 civilians.    

"Mass slaughter of hundreds of men, women and children by Nigeran soldiers in Zaria and the attempted cover-up of this crime demonstrates an utter contempt for human life and accountability, said Amnesty International as it published evidence gathered on the ground revealing how the Nigerian military burned people alive, razed buildings and dumped victims' bodies in mass graves.

Reacting to the fresh carnage, an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross told the Associated Press news agency that twenty Red Cross volunteers were among the dead.

The bombing was condemned by MSF, which described the incident as "shocking and unacceptable".

A spokeswoman for MSF told reporters the organisation was indeed active in the Kala Balge area, but was unable to verify whether its employees were among the victims.

She said MSF teams had seen 52 dead and 120 wounded as of Tuesday evening.

"Teams are trying to provide emergency first aid in its facility and are stabilising patients to evacuate wounded," she said.

"We are asking the authorities to put all measures in place in order to facilitate the emergency evacuation of the wounded. Our medical and surgical teams in Cameroon and Chad are ready to treat wounded patients."

Jean-Clement Cabrol, Director of Operations at MSF, said: "This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable.

"The safety of civilians must be respected."