Nigeria detains Russian cargo plane with military shipment to Chad

Kano - Nigeria detained a Russian cargo plane
and its French-speaking crew on Saturday after
it made an unauthorised landing in Kano with
military hardware bound for neighbouring
Chad, a security source said.
An air force spokesman confirmed the plane
had been detained but gave no further
details.
The plane had been travelling from Bangui,
the capital of Central African Republic, to the
Chadian capital N'Djamena but was forced to
make an emergency landing in Kano because
N'Djamena airport was closed, the security
source said.
He said after the five crew members were
detained, inspectors found two helicopters, a
bullet-proof jeep and boxes of what were
suspected to be military hardware.
The Russian embassy in Abuja did not
immediately respond to a request for
comment.
It was not clear what the shipment was for.
Chadian fighters have been involved in Central
African Republic's conflict since Muslim Seleka
rebels seized the southern capital Bangui in
2013.
Mysterious arms shipments have caused
controversy in Nigeria before. A Nigerian court
sentenced an alleged member of Iran's
Revolutionary Guard and a Nigerian accomplice
to five years in prison in May last year over an
illegal shipment of mortars and rockets seized
in the main port of Lagos in 2010.