The assassination of a humanitarian worker by an operating soldier at Damboa in the Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, Northeast Nigeria, has been condemned by the United Nations, U.N.
In a statement, the UN Coordinator for Nigeria Matthias Schmale described the incident as “disturbing and sad”, saying the humanitarian is a staff of Médecins du Monde working in the community
“Yesterday’s killing of a staff member of the humanitarian non-governmental organisation Médecins du Monde in Damboa, Borno State is deeply disturbing and sad. On behalf of the United Nations, I convey my heartfelt condolences to the aid worker’s family and to her colleagues. I also wish a speedy recovery to a pilot working with the UN
“Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) who was injured in the deplorable attack by an apparently rogue soldier. All humanitarian staff working in north-east Nigeria deserve our fullest respect for their courage and commitment to stay and deliver life-saving assistance to people in need in often difficult and dangerous circumstances. Humanitarian workers must be protected.
“I laud the Government and the military’s efforts to speedily investigate yesterday’s incident and urge them to strengthen remedial measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
The soldier shot and killed another soldier and injured the co-pilot of a U.N helicopter, according to Major Nantip Zhakom, Assistant Director of Army Public Relations, Operations Hadin Kai Maiduguri.
“The Theatre Command Operation HADIN KAI regrets to inform the public of a sad occurrence at one of our military bases today. A soldier shot and killed a staff of one of the NGOs providing humanitarian support in the North East. The same soldier also killed another soldier and injured the co-pilot of one of the UN helicopters,” he said in a statement.
“Own troops on the ground immediately neutralised the errant personnel. The injured co-pilot has been stabilised while the corpses of the deceased have been moved to the 7 Division Hospital. A detailed investigation into the incident and subsequent remedial actions have commenced into the highly regrettable incident. Further details will be provided later”.
The aforementioned soldier is a member of the special forces (SF), and shortly after the plane touched down in Damboa with some aid workers, he lost his cool and turned on the crew members. He fired and injured the pilot as he made an attempt to flee the scene.
He then turned to the aid workers and opened fire on them. According to reports, the soldier repeatedly attacked the dead aid worker with a knife until she passed away.