MSF denounces 12 dead, including four children, and 16 injured in a bombing in southern Niger

MADRID, Feb. 20 (Royals Blue) –

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has denounced this Sunday a bombing that occurred in southern Niger that has left at least 12 dead, including four children, and 16 injured, according to sources from the humanitarian organization.

Seven children injured in the attack received initial treatment at the Madarounfa hospital, where MSF works, close to the town of the same name where the bombing occurred, for which the survivors blame a Nigerian plane.

The survivors have told MSF that it was a plane — “combat”, clarifies the Central African section of the NGO on its Twitter account — that was chasing armed men from a border town who had taken refuge in the school from town.

“MSF teams operating in the Madarounfa district hospital supported the Ministry of Health teams, in particular by providing medical supplies to treat seven injured children”, one of whom died shortly after admission, adds the NGO. .

A fourth child, aged 20 months, died in the bombing, according to survivors, while six other adults died at the scene of the attack and two more died after being taken to hospital in Maradi.

According to testimonies, the plane first flew over the village of Nachambé, near the village of Garin Kaoura in the Madarounfa district, located a few kilometers from the border with Nigeria and inhabited by people belonging to the Peul ethnic group.

Then, according to witnesses, it flew over the village again, dropping ammunition.

“This is a horrible event, without precedent in the Madarounfa region,” says Dr. Souley Harouna, MSF representative in Niger. “Teams have informed us that the injured children were suffering from open fractures and various wounds and post-traumatic injuries. We helped carry out first aid before transferring them to Maradi hospital, but some did not survive,” he lamented.

MSF works in the Maradi region, focusing on treating children with acute malnutrition and other childhood illnesses. Nearly 30,000 children were hospitalized in the four MSF-supported hospitals in the Maradi region in 2021.