. AES member-states condemn incident, say ‘it’s violation of our sovereignty’
. Put member-states’ air, anti-aircraft defences on maximum alert, order neutralising of any aircraft violating Confederate space
Nigeria and Burkina Faso may be on a collision course as the
Government of Burkina Faso, on Monday, forced a Nigerian Air Force C130 aircraft carrying 11 soldiers to land in the country for allegedly violating its airspace.
The Burkinabe government also seized the NAF plane and detained the 11 Nigerian military personnel on board.
This is coming after the Nigerian government deployed its military aircraft in Benin Republic on Sunday, following an attempted coup in the neighbouring country.
The grounding of the Nigerian AirForce plane was reported by the Agence d’Information du Burkina, the state-run news agency, in a statement from the Confederation of Sahel States.
The statement, originally written in French, read, “The Confederation of Sahel States informs the public that a C130 aircraft belonging to the Air Force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to land today, December 8, 2025, in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, following an in-flight emergency while operating in Burkinabe airspace. The military aircraft had two (2) crew members and nine (9) passengers on board, all military personnel.”
According to the statement, an investigation by Burkinabe authorities “highlighted the absence of authorisation to fly over the territory of Burkina Faso for this military device.”
The AES condemned the incident as a violation of sovereignty.
The member-states of the organisation comprising French-speaking West African countries that recently quit ECOWAS over the forcible take-over of democratically elected governments through coups de tat in their various countries, developments Nigeria vehemently condemned, said it “condemns with the utmost firmness this violation of its airspace and the sovereignty of its member States.”
The AES warned that “air and anti-aircraft defences of the Confederate space put on maximum alert had been authorised to neutralise any foreign aircraft that would violate the Confederate’s airspace.
However, neither the Nigerian AirForce nor the Federal Government had issued any official comment on the development as of the time of filing this report.
