Gunmen attacked a US convoy in southeast Nigeria’s Anambra State on Tuesday, 16 Could, police and a US official mentioned, killing 4 individuals and abducting three others.
Separatists who function within the area have escalated their assaults lately, normally focusing on police or authorities buildings.
“No US citizen was within the convoy,” mentioned police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu.
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The gunmen “murdered two of the Police Cellular Pressure operatives and two employees of the consulate,” he mentioned, earlier than setting their automobile “ablaze”.
The assault occurred on Tuesday, 16 Could, at “3:30 pm (14:30 GMT) alongside Atani, Osamale street” in Ogbaru district, in response to the police.
Joint safety forces deployed to the scene, mentioned Tochukwu, however the gunmen managed to abduct two police operatives and a driver.
A “rescue/restoration operation” was underway Tuesday night, he added in his assertion.
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How the US convoy was attacked
US Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed the assault throughout a briefing with reporters in Washington DC.
“A US convoy of autos was attacked. What I can inform you is that no US residents had been concerned,” Kirby mentioned.
The State Division additionally confirmed the assault.
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“U.S. Mission Nigeria personnel are working with Nigerian safety providers to research,” a spokesperson mentioned.
“The safety of our personnel is at all times paramount, and we take intensive precautions when organizing journeys to the sector.”
Outlawed group
Nigerian officers typically blame assaults within the southeast on the outlawed Indigenous Individuals of Biafra motion (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Jap Safety Community.
IPOB has repeatedly denied accountability for the violence.
The group’s chief Nnamdi Kanu is in authorities custody and faces trial for treason after being detained abroad and introduced again to Nigeria.
Separatism is a delicate difficulty in Nigeria, the place a declaration of an impartial Biafra Republic by Igbo military officers within the southeast in 1967 triggered a three-year civil conflict that left a couple of million useless.
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Violence within the southeast is simply one of many many points dealing with president-elect Bola Tinubu, who takes the helm of Africa’s most populous nation later this month.
The army can be battling a 14-year-old jihadist insurgency within the northeast, gangs who kidnap and kill within the northwest and central states and piracy within the Gulf of Guinea.
After a quick calm interval throughout February and March elections for the presidency and governorships, assaults have been on the rise in the previous couple of weeks.
Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who ran and misplaced within the February 25 presidential election, is a kind of contesting Tinubu’s victory, claiming fraud.
The electoral fee has recognised “glitches” throughout the vote however has dismissed claims that the method was not free and truthful.
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© Agence France-Presse
