FOUR aid workers were killed in a Boko Haram attack in Rann, in northeast Nigeria, the United Nations said today, in the latest violence to hit the remote town.

The attack happened “after dark” outside a camp housing some 55,000 people displaced by the conflict and appeared to target the military, said United Nations spokesman Samantha Newport.

A civilian militia source in Rann, some 175km from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, and a senior military source gave an identical death toll.

They also said eight soldiers were killed in the attack but there was no immediate official confirmation.

Newport said: “Four aid workers were killed, one aid worker was injured and one aid worker was missing, feared abducted.

“Of the aid workers that were killed, two worked for IOM (International Organisation for Migration) in camp management; and one was a medical doctor working as a third party consultant for Unicef,” she said, referring to the United Nations children’s agency.

No details were immediately available for the fourth, but Newport said the injured and missing were both women. All those involved were Nigerian, she added.

Boko Haram fighters killed nine people from the Rann internally displaced persons camp last September, as they worked on farms just outside the town.

In January last year, a botched Nigerian air strike intended to hit jihadist fighters killed at least 112 people as aid workers distributed food.

Commanders at the time called the bombing a mistake and blamed “the fog of war”.

An air force board of inquiry later blamed “lack of appropriate marking of the area” for the bombardment and an unexpected gathering of people at the location. – AFP, March 2, 2018.