The Defence Headquarters has come out with an explanation to why the Nigeria Air Force mistakenly bombed IDPs in Borno.

An unexpected gathering of homeless people is what caused the botched air strike that killed 112 at a camp for those displaced by the Boko Haram conflict, the Defence Headquarters on Friday said.

It will be recalled that Air force jets targeted the camp in Rann, Borno State, on January 17 as aid workers distributed food to internally displaced people living in makeshift shelters.

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

According to Agence France Presse, AFP, a Nigerian Air Force board of inquiry had been due to report in early February on the strike, which also injured nearly 100 people, many of them women and children.

Defence spokesman Major General John Enenche gave no explanation for the six-month delay in revealing its findings.

But in a brief statement he blamed “lack of appropriate marking of the area” for the bombardment.

“Hitherto, people were not expected to amass at that location,” he said of the camp, which at the time was home to between 20,000 and 40,000 people and was run by the military.

“Furthermore, the location was not reflected in the operational map as a humanitarian base.”