MORE than 150 civilians were killed in a secretive US military operation in Nigeria in 2017 involving the bombing of a refugee camp, newly published documents revealed today.

A Freedom of Information Act report obtained by news website The Intercept revealed that US intelligence was involved in the attack in which 160 people died, most of them children.

The bombing of the Nigerian army-operated camp, which housed some 43,000 people in the city of Rann, close to the border with Cameroon and Chad, took place in January 2017.

At least 35 structures were destroyed during the bombardment, which killed nine aid workers and wounded 120 others.

Survivors said that a surveillance plane flew overhead before another plane bombed the camp in an area where people drew water from a well. Another jet then bombed the refugees’ tents, destroying the camp. 

The air strikes, badged as a joint US-Nigerian operation, were part of counterinsurgency operations against the Boko Haram jihadist group, it was claimed at the time.

Soon after, the Nigerian air force said that the site was not marked on the map as a humanitarian base, leading to its bombing.  

Nigerian Director of Defence Information Major General John Enenche said that as a result, “it appeared as a place that could equally be used for enemy activities.”

But human rights groups accused the Nigerian air force of a cover-up, saying it was incomprehensible that it could be unaware of the camp with the refugees tents visible from the air. 

The Intercept report reveals that the US government secretly provided intelligence or other support such as background information to the Nigerian military before bombing the area.

US Africa Command (Africom) secretly commissioned Brigadier General Frank J Stokes to conduct an investigation, but he was blocked from obtaining information on any individual or organisation that took part in the attacks. 

“You do not have any authority to compel potentially incriminating evidence from any service member, a civilian employee of the US, contractor personnel supporting US operations, or foreign military personnel,” his mandate read. 

The findings of the investigation were never published, leading to charges of a cover-up.

Africom’s Kelly Cahalan said that it was not involved in the bombing but said that secret operations can be carried out by the CIA or special operations forces under their own chains of command.

General Lucky Irabor, who is now Nigeria’s defence chief, admitted that he ordered the attacks in Rann, based on intelligence received “from one of the powerful Western countries.”