According to a local governor in Niger, state television, and an aid agency, the Nigerian military killed and injured children in an air raid in neighboring Niger.
The incident took occurred in the town of Nachade in the province of Maradi, Niger, on Friday, a few kilometres from the border with Nigeria, said Chaibou Aboubacar, the governor of Maradi.
“There was a blunder with the Nigerian border strikes that led in victims on our soil in Nachade,” the officer explained.
“There are 12 youngsters among the casualties, seven of them are deceased and five of whom 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 hospital” from their injuries.
He didn’t disclose how he knew the strike was carried out by 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 injured, confirmed the strike. It was reported that 12 individuals died, four of whom were children. Nigerian military were hunting targets who had fled a border village, residents told MSF.
