Gunmen assault U.S. Embassy convoy in Nigeria; 2 policemen, 2 consulate staffers killed

ABUJA, Nigeria — Gunmen on Tuesday focused a convoy of U.S. Embassy staffers in southeast Nigeria, killing two of its native staff and two policemen, the police stated.

The assailants opened fireplace on the convoy alongside a serious highway in Ogbaru native authorities space in Anambra State, one of many epicenters of separatist violence within the area, in line with the police. “The hoodlums murdered two of the Police Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the Consulate, and set their bodies ablaze and their vehicles,” stated Tochukwu Ikenga, a police spokesman in Anambra.

A joint crew of safety forces was deployed to the scene however arrived solely after the assailants escaped with two different cops and one of many drivers, Ikenga added. He stated no U.S. citizen was on the journey.

U.S. State Department stated its personnel in Nigeria are working with the nation’s safety businesses to research Tuesday’s assault. “The security of our personnel is always paramount, and we take extensive precautions when organizing trips to the field,” the State Department stated in an announcement.

It will not be instantly clear the character of the journey embarked upon by the U.S. embassy staffers in Anambra, nor what number of there have been within the convoy. Ikenga stated it was regrettable that “a convoy of such or any related will enter the state without recourse to the police in the area or any security agency.”

The assault in Atani city, situated 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the state capital, additional raised considerations concerning the security of residents and vacationers amid the separatist violence that has turn out to be rampant in Nigeria’s southeastern area in recent times.

Authorities have blamed the violence on a separatist group often known as the Indigenous People of Biafra which is main a marketing campaign for the area to interrupt away from the West African nation to kind an unbiased nation. The separatists have turn out to be extra violent in the previous couple of years as they proceed to demand a referendum and because the trial of its chief Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism prices.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the requires a referendum, insisting that the unity of Africa’s most populous nation – and the continent’s largest financial system – will not be negotiable.