The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria confirmed in an email that members of the Nigerian security forces breached the base “without authorisation”.
“The United Nations is extremely concerned that these actions could be detrimental to the delivery of lifesaving aid,” it said.
The Nigerian army confirmed that it had conducted several “cordon and search” operations to locate Boko Haram fighters but denied that it knowingly raided a UN site.
– ‘Real fear’ –
“(Searches) included a property which was said to be occupied by United Nations staff, although the property did not carry a UN designation,” the army said in a statement.
The incident comes as relations between the Nigerian military and foreign organisations seeking to relieve the humanitarian disaster engulfing the country’s northeast are already at an historic low.
In July the Nigerian military blamed foreign aid organisations for a botched bombing at the start of the year on Rann, a northeastern town of 40,000 people, that left at least 100 civilians dead.
Over 20,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Boko Haram conflict that has devastated northeast Nigeria and become one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
“There is real fear among us because this incident may turn the same people we are serving against us,” said a UN source at the base.
In August 2011, an attack on a UN building in the capital Abuja claimed by Boko Haram left 24 people dead, and in July 2016 the UN temporarily suspended aid deliveries in Borno state after a convoy was attacked.
