Yusuf Tuggar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, says the 11 Nigerian soldiers who were on an aircraft that made a forced landing in Burkina Faso are still being held in that country.
Tuggar disclosed this during a briefing with his Beninese counterpart, Olushegun Bakari, on Thursday at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja.
The Confederation of Sahel States (AES) had on Monday accused an aircraft carrying 11 Nigerian soldiers of violating Burkinabe airspace.
AES is a breakaway West African regional union comprising 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 to help foil a coup.
In an earlier response to the situation, the Nigerian Air Force said the C-130 aircraft was on a ferry mission to Portugal.
