Nigeria's military said Monday that it was probing reports from neighbouring Niger that it accidentally killed children in an air strike targeting an armed group at the border.
Troops have been deployed to northwest Nigeria, where heavily-armed criminals known as bandits terrorise communities, forcing more than 70,000 to flee into southern Niger, according to UN figures.
On Friday, seven children were killed and five injured by a Nigerian air strike, according to a local governor in Niger.
"There was a mistake with the Nigerian strikes on the border that resulted in victims on our territory in the village of Nachade," said Chaibou Aboubacar, the governor of Maradi region.
"The victims are 12 children, seven of them dead and five wounded."
Nigeria has neither confirmed nor denied launching an air strike in that area but a military spokesman said a probe was underway.
"We have seen the reports. An investigation is ongoing," Director of Defence Information Major General Ohwonigho Jimmy Akpor told AFP, without giving further details.
Aboubacar said four children were killed instantly and three died on the way to hospital.
He said he visited the children's graves on Saturday as well as the site of the air strike.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which works at nearby Madarounfa district hospital, gave a higher death toll of four children and eight adults, citing survivors.
The charity treated seven children, it said in a statement on Sunday.
"One of these children died shortly after arrival… Two others died after being transferred to the regional hospital in Maradi. A fourth child, aged 20 months, died in the bombing, according to survivors," MSF said.
"Six other people, adults, reportedly died at the scene," MSF added, "and two more died after being transferred to the hospital in Maradi."
Niger has since 2018 reinforced military patrols along its border with Nigeria to prevent incursions by "bandits," who are notorious for killing and kidnapping traders and stealing cattle.
Nigeria officially labelled the gangs terrorists earlier this year, a move that analysts say seems aimed at unlocking more resources for the military in the northwest.
"Bandits" made international headlines last year after kidnapping hundreds of students in a series of mass abductions from schools and colleges.
Students are often quickly released after ransom payments but many are still missing.
Niger and Nigeria are also fighting jihadist insurgencies.
Stray Nigeria air strike kills seven children in Niger: governor
Niamey (AFP) Feb 20, 2022 –
An air strike 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 told AFP 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.
According to the governor, "the parents were attending a ceremony and the children were probably playing when the strikes" hit them.
He believes the planes were targeting "armed bandits" in the border areas, but "missed their target" hitting Nachade instead.
Aboubacar said he visited the children's graves on Saturday as well as the scene of the bombardment.
Several municipalities in the Maradi region are seriously affected by the violence of heavily armed gangs from the Nigerian states of neighbouring 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.
In April 2021, International Crisis Group (ICG) said it feared a third jihadist centre could emerge in this region of Maradi, exploiting the actions of Nigerian gangs and conflicts between local communities.
Niger already faces two jihadist fronts. The Nigerian group Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), its dissident branch, are operating in the south-east while groups affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda are at work in the west.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Maradi is host to 100,000 Nigerian refugees, who have fled the relentless attacks in their country.
In mid-February 2015, 36 people were killed in a bombardment by an "unidentified" plane against a mosque in the village of Abadam in the Diffa region (southeast) where Boko Haram jihadists had just made their first attacks against Niger.
