By Adamu Musa, Maiduguri
The United Nations, Friday, expressed sadness over the killing of a UN humanitarian worker. The victim was stabbed to death by a ‘wild’ soldier at a military base in Borno State.
It was gathered that the soldier went wild, shot his soldier colleague and used a knife to kill the UN aid worker after exhausting his bullets. The ‘wild’ soldier also wounded a pilot as well as some other UN workers.
It was gathered that he had left the base around 3pm on Thursday and went on shooting spree using his AK-47.
The UN, in a reaction through its coordinator for Nigeria, Mr Matthias Schmale, said the incident was ‘disturbing’.
According to him, “Yesterday’s killing of a staff member of the humanitarian non-governmental organization 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 theatre command, Operation Hadin Kai, through Samson Nantip Zhakom, major assistant director, Army Public Relations, had confirmed the incident.
Quoting him, “The Theatre Command Operation HADIN KAI regrets to inform the general public of a sad occurrence at one of our military bases. A soldier shot and killed a staff of one of the NGOs providing humanitarian support in the North East.
“Same soldier also killed another soldier and injured the co-pilot of one of the UN helicopters. Own troops on 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.
“Detailed investigations into the incident and subsequent remedial actions have commenced into the highly regrettable incident. Further details will be provided later.”
Our reporter heard that after the soldier exhausted his bullets, he brought out a knife and stabbed the humanitarian worker who was a female staff member of Medecins du Monde (France) on Nigeria Mission, four times. He killed her before injuring the helicopter pilot.
