Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, says the Nigerian soldiers who were on an aircraft that made a forced landing in Burkina Faso are still in the West African country.
The Foreign Affairs Minister made this known during a joint press briefing with his Beninese counterpart, Olushegun Bakari, at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja.
It could be recalled that on Monday 8 December, the Confederation of Sahel States AES accused an aircraft carrying 11 Nigerian soldiers of violating Burkinabe airspace.
It reports that AES is a breakaway West African regional union made up of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic.
The Mali junta leader, Assimi Goita, described the landing as an unfriendly act carried out in defiance of international law.
The AES said it authorised its member states to neutralise any aircraft violating its airspace.
The development came at the same time Nigerian troops carried out air strikes in Benin Republic to help foil a coup.
Commenting on the situation, the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, said the C-130 aircraft was on a ferry mission to Portugal.
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