{"id":80487,"date":"2025-12-18T05:14:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=80487"},"modified":"2025-12-18T05:14:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T05:14:23","slug":"nigeria-burkina-faso-intensify-talks-over-detained-air-force-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/18\/nigeria-burkina-faso-intensify-talks-over-detained-air-force-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria, Burkina Faso Intensify Talks Over Detained Air Force Crew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Olokuta Rofiat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nigeria has dispatched a high-level delegation to Burkina Faso to seek the release of 11 Nigerian Air Force (NAF), personnel detained after a Nigerian military aircraft made an emergency landing in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The delegation, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, includes senior officials from the Ministry of Defence and the NAF Headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>It is expected to engage Burkinab\u00e8 authorities, including President Ibrahim Traor\u00e9, to ease tensions and secure the crew\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred on December 8, 2025, when a Nigerian Air Force C-130 aircraft en route from Lagos to Portugal diverted to Bobo-Dioulasso due to technical challenges.<\/p>\n<p>While Nigerian authorities insist the landing was a safety precaution, Burkinab\u00e8 officials said the crew was detained over an alleged unauthorised airspace violation.<\/p>\n<p>Government sources in Abuja said the visit reflects Nigeria\u2019s preference for diplomatic engagement, respect for international aviation protocols and commitment to regional cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>The House of Representatives has also urged swift diplomatic efforts to resolve the matter.<\/p>\n<p>As talks continue, Nigeria has reiterated its call for peaceful resolution, amid wider regional sensitivities over sovereignty and security in the Sahel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Olokuta Rofiat Nigeria has dispatched a high-level delegation to Burkina Faso to seek the release of 11 Nigerian Air Force (NAF), personnel detained after a Nigerian military aircraft made an emergency landing in the country. The delegation, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, includes senior officials from the Ministry of Defence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":80488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-80487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-and-security","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80489,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80487\/revisions\/80489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}