Official Says, Nigeria Air Strike Targeting Terrorists Kills Children in the Niger Republic.

By Derrick Bangura.

According to a local governor in Niger, state television, and an aid agency, the Nigerian military killed and injured children in an air strike in neighboring Niger.

The incident occurred on Friday in the village of Nachade in the Maradi area of Niger, just a few kilometers from the Nigerian border, according to Chaibou Aboubacar, the governor of Maradi.

“There was a mistake with the Nigerian border strikes that led in victims on our territory in Nachade,” the officer explained.

“There are 12 children among the casualties, seven of them are deceased and five of them are injured.”

“The parents were attending a ceremony, and the children were probably playing when the strikes” came, according to the governor.
He added four children died quickly and three others died “while being transferred to the hospital” from their injuries.
He added four children died quickly and three others died “while being transferred to the hospital” from their injuries.

He didn’t disclose how he knew the strike was carried out by the Nigerian military. It was also carried out by Nigerian forces, according to Niger’s national television, without offering evidence.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), a medical charity that treated some of the wounded, confirmed the strike. It was reported that 12 people died, four of whom were children. The Nigerian military was pursuing targets who had fled a border village, residents told MSF.
“The Nigerian Air Force does not undertake any incursions into places outside of Nigeria’s territorial boundaries as a matter of policy.” That is our policy, according to Nigeria’s director of defense information, Major General Jimmy Akpor. He stated that an investigation was now underway.

The exact reason for the strike is unknown, however, banditry is reported to be widespread in the Maradi region, exploiting the actions of Nigerian gangs and local community conflicts.

Niger is already up against hardliner forces. In the southeast, the Nigerian group Boko Haram and its dissident offshoot, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), are active, while in the west, groups associated with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are active.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Maradi is host to 100,000 Nigerian refugees who have fled the relentless attacks in their country.