An airstrike by the Nigerian army targeting “bandits” has left seven children dead and five others wounded “by mistake” in the Maradi region of southern Niger, a local governor said on Sunday.
“There was a mistake with the Nigerian strikes on the border that resulted in victims on our territory in the village of Nachade” on Friday, said Chaibou Aboubacar, governor of the Maradi region, close to Nigeria. “The victims are 12 children, seven of them dead and five wounded.”
Four children died instantly and three others succumbed “to their injuries while being transported to hospital,” he said.
Photo: AFP
“The parents were attending a ceremony and the children were probably playing when the strikes” hit them, the governor said.
Aboubacar said he believed the planes were targeting “armed bandits” in the border areas, but “missed their target,” hitting Nachade instead.
He said that he visited the children’s graves on Saturday, as well as the scene of the bombardment.
Several municipalities in the Maradi region have been seriously affected by the violence of heavily armed gangs from the Nigerian states of Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara.
In 2018, Niamey reinforced military patrols along its border with Nigeria to prevent the incursions of these gangs, which carry out assassinations, kidnappings for ransom, attacks on traders and raids on cattle, which they then lead into Nigeria.
The International Crisis Group in April last year said that it feared a third center of extremists could emerge in Maradi, exploiting the actions of Nigerian gangs and conflicts between local communities.
Niger already faces two fronts of extremists: The Nigerian group Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa, its dissident branch, are operating in the southeast, while groups affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda are at work in the west.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that Maradi is host to 100,000 Nigerian refugees, who have fled the relentless attacks in their country.
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