Ambush on UN team: Boko Haram ‘getting information from IDPs’

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borno state have been accused of providing Boko Haram with the information on the whereabouts of aid workers.

An official of the United Nations, who does not want his name mentioned, made this allegation while reacting to the attack on a UN team.

During the weekend, suspected insurgents ambushed a World Food Programme (WFP) aid convoy in Ngala, Borno state, killing at least four persons.

WFP is the food-assistance branch of the UN and the world’s largest humanitarian organisation.

The UN official said it is only the IDPs who know the itinerary of the aid workers since they have the dates of their movements on the food ration card.

“It is possible that they are the ones giving information to the enemies. If not, how do the Boko Haram people know the dates when the trucks would move?”

In a statement, Adedeji Ademigbuji, WFP spokesman, said the items which Boko Haram looted over the weekend were meant for some IDP camps.

The attack on WFP is the third in 2017 alone.

Earlier in the year, Boko Haram fighters attacked and seized trucks of rice from a WFP convoy in Damboa, still in Borno.

The attack happened in June when the agency was aiming to meet the food needs of 1.7 million IDPs.

WFP has been forced to postpone food distribution following the Boko Haram attack.

The military is yet to react to the latest known attack in the north-east.