A military fighter jet on Tuesday mistakenly dropped a bomb inside an IDP camp in Borno State, military authorities have confirmed.

The incident occurred at the Rann IDP camp in Kala-balge Local Government Area which caters for thousands of persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Spokesman of the Nigerian Defence Headquarters, Rabe Abubakar, while confirming the incident, explained that it was an error that the military deeply regretted.

Abubakar explained that the troops had information of movement of Boko Haram fighters in the area and deployed ground troops and air cover to tackle the terrorists.He added that it was the air support that mistakenly dropped the bomb.

Similarly, the theatre Commander of the counter insurgency operation in the North East, ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’, Lucky Irabor, confirmed the incident during a press conference in Maiduguri.

He said: “This morning today, we received reports about gathering of Boko Haram terrorists somewhere in Kala Balge Local Government area of Borno State.“We got a coordinate and I directed that the air should go to address the problem.

“Unfortunately the strike was conducted but it turned out that the locals somewhere in Rann were affected.“We are yet to get the details of the casualties. But we have some civilians that have been killed, others are wounded and we also have two of our soldiers that were also wounded.

“Among some that are wounded are local staff of the Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF) as well as ICRC,” Irabor said.

A source at the camp told journalists that a lot of people, including members of the humanitarian group, Doctors without Borders, were injured in the unfortunate incident and had to be rushed to hospitals.

The source said that no less than two people died in the incident.Reports have it that the Borno State government has ordered all hospitals in Maiduguri to be prepared to receive and promptly attend to the injured.

Also, a helicopter belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, has been deployed to the camp to evacuate the wounded to the various hospitals.