Posted: 3:15 am ET
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (USUN) Samantha Power is on travel to Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria from April 16-23 to highlight the growing threat Boko Haram poses to the Lake Chad Basin region.

On April 18, while on her way to talk to refugees forced from their homes by Boko Haram in Cameroon, a vehicle in her convoy struck and killed a 7-year old child. The AP reported that the motorcade was traveling at speeds of more than 60mph. The ABC news report says “the cars were traveling around 43 mph.” The NYT report said that the convoy had been driving at more than 40 miles per hour when the vehicle hit the boy. Also that one of the ambulances that was part of Ambassador Power’s motorcade was dispatched to transfer the boy to a nearby hospital.  She later returned to the village, according to NYT, to pay her respects to the boy’s parents:

This time when the convoy arrived in the village, there were no laughing and waving children running on the side of the road. Instead, hundreds of villagers, surrounded by dozens of black-clad Cameroonian soldiers, stood near the road, staring stone-faced at the motorcade.

The State Department spox was asked during the Daily Press Briefing if there is any discussion for the U.S. Government to provide compensation to the family. Below is Mr. Kirby’s response:

“I don’t know about any plans for compensation. I just don’t have an update for you on that. But obviously, we all here are grieving with the family of that young boy who was killed by the vehicle in the convoy. And as I think you saw reported, Ambassador Power, who certainly is feeling this very deeply, visited with the family today to express her deep regrets over what happened. I don’t have any update in terms of next steps here, but we all share in the grief and the sorrow that resulted from this tragic, just terrible, terrible accident.”

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