Medicins du Monde staff revealed as aid worker killed by soldier in Borno

The Borno government has revealed the identity of the humanitarian worker shot by a soldier of the Nigerian army at Damboa LGA of the state.

TheCable reported on Thursday how a soldier ran amok and opened fire on a humanitarian worker, a pilot of the United Nations as well as his colleague.

While the humanitarian worker and the soldier lost their lives, the co-pilot of one of the UN helicopters survived with injury.

According to Samson Zhakom, assistant director of army public relations, the soldier who carried out the act was immediately neutralised by the troops on the ground.

Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno, in a condolence message on Friday said Alem Muluseta, the humanitarian official, was a staff of the Medicins du Monde (France).

The letter titled “condolence and solidarity’’ was addressed to Matthias Schmale, UN resident representative in Nigeria.

Zulum said the incident is connected to the mental health of the soldier, adding that he is working towards improving mental health programmes for military operatives in the state.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened by the incident in Damboa on Thursday,” the governor said.

“My condolence goes to the family of Mrs Muluseta, her colleagues at Medicins du Monde (France), and the whole humanitarian community and the UN, who continually make huge sacrifices to support our people.

“My condolence also goes to the families of gallant soldiers who lost their lives in trying to restrain the perpetrator.

“This was a sad, isolated incident the like of which we have not seen before, and which may not be unconnected with the mental health of the soldier involved.”

The governor said the injured pilot is recovering, adding that his government would continue to support him.

“The injured pilot has been adequately attended to, and he is recovering well. We will do all we can to continue to support him to get what he needs until he recovers,” he said.

“I want to assure our partners and the general public that this is an isolated incident, and the military is investigating what happened.

“We remain confident that our military and other security agencies are committed to ensuring peace and security of lives and property in Borno.

“We will continue working with the military and our partners to support mental health programmes in their theatres of operations.”