Chad war plane
Chad claims to have bombed six Boko Haram bases in northern Nigeria Getty

The Nigerian army has denied reports that Chad has carried out air strikes in Nigeria, following twin bomb attacks blamed on Boko Haram that killed dozens in Chad's capital N'Djamena earlier in June.

Chad has said it carried out the air strikes in northern Nigeria and destroyed six Boko Haram bases, causing "considerable human and material losses."

However, Nigerian army spokesman Chris Olukolade said that Chad's statement was incorrect as the area targeted was not "within Nigerian territory".

Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorists?

Boko Haram (recently renamed Iswap) fights against Western influence in Nigeria and aims to impose its version of Sharia law on the country. The group declared an Islamic caliphate in Gwoza, along the Cameroon border, in August 2014.

Boko Haram has raided several cities in the north of the country in a bid to take control of more land.

Three states − Adamawa, Borno and Yobe − have been under a state of emergency since May 2013, due to Boko Haram's attacks.

The group has killed at least 2,600 people since the beginning of 2015. Some 200 have been killed since the beginning of June.

He said: "The claim that the Chadian military has conducted air strikes against six terrorist camps in Nigeria is not correct.

"The fact is that the Nigerian Airforce surveillance mission identified targets tagged at Camp 6 around Bosso town, which is not within Nigeria's territory, and alerted the partners accordingly. The places reported to have been struck by the Chadians are therefore most likely to be in Niger Republic and not Nigeria, as was widely reported in the international media.

"Although the terms of the multilateral and bilateral understanding with partners in the war against terror allow some degree of hot pursuit against the terrorists, the territory of Nigeria has not been violated as insinuated in the reports circulated in some foreign media."

Boko Haram terrorists have not claimed responsibility for the attack in Chad. However, the group urged Chad to withdraw its troops from Nigeria, warning imminent attacks would take place otherwise.

Shortly after Chad's airstrikes, Boko Haram attacked two villages in southern Niger's Diffa region, killing at least 30 people.

Niger and Chad are part of a regional coalition – together with Nigeria, Cameroon and Benin – aimed at tackling terrorism in northern Nigeria.

Some have alleged that the recent attacks in Chad and Niger were carried out in retaliation at participation in the joint offensive.

Speaking to IBTimes UK, Nigeria's government spokesman Mike Omeri said that the Nigerian government could not say whether the attack in Niger was carried out in retaliation to the deployment of troops.

"There were attacks, such as in Cameroon, even before [the regional coalition]. This is something we have always tried to prevent," he said.

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