In pics: Nigerian Air Force fighter jet claims lives in a refugee camp

A Nigerian air force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp on Tuesday, killing more than 100 refugees and aid workers and wounding 200, a government official and doctors said.

A Nigerian air force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp on Tuesday, killing more than 100 refugees and aid workers and wounding 200, a government official and doctors said.

This hand-out image received in courtesy of Doctors Without Border (MSF) on January 17, 2017, shows people standing next to the destruction after an air force jet accidentally bombarded a camp for those displaced by Boko Haram Islamists, in Rann, northeast Nigeria. At least 100 aid workers and civilians were killed. (AFP PHOTO / Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) / Handout)

Military commander Maj Gen Lucky Irabor confirmed an accidental bombardment in the northeastern town of Rann, near the border with Cameroon, saying “some” civilians were killed.

People walk at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari expressed deep sadness and regret at “this regrettable operational mistake”.

Covered bodies seen at the site after the bombing attack. A Borno state government official, who was helping to coordinate the evacuation of wounded from the remote area by helicopters, said more than 100 refugees and aid workers were among the dead.

Injured people are comforted at the site. Boko Haram’s 7-year-old Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2.6 million from their homes, creating the continent’s worst humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning some 5.1 million people face starvation.

Doctors Without Borders said its team based in Rann counted at least 52 bodies and was treating 200 wounded, many in critical condition, and the death toll was expected to rise. (AFP PHOTO / Médecins sans Frontières

This file photo, taken on December 8, 2016, shows an aerial view of the Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Bama, northern Nigeria. The incident happened at about 9:00 am (0800 GMT) in Rann, in the far north of Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadists' insurgency, while food was being distributed to displaced people.

This shows Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) mostly women and children standing, waiting for food at Dikwa Camp, in Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. It was believed to be the first time Nigeria’s military has acknowledged making such a mistake in a region where villagers have in the past reported civilian casualties in the near-daily bombings targeting the Islamic militants.