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ABUJA, Nigeria — Gunmen on Tuesday focused a convoy of U.S. Embassy staffers in southeast Nigeria, killing two of its native employees and two policemen, the police mentioned.
The assailants opened fireplace on the convoy alongside a significant highway in Ogbaru native authorities space in Anambra State, one of many epicenters of separatist violence within the area, in accordance with the police. “The hoodlums murdered two of the Police Cell Drive operatives and two workers of the Consulate, and set their our bodies ablaze and their automobiles,” mentioned Tochukwu Ikenga, a police spokesman in Anambra.
A joint staff 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 mentioned no U.S. citizen was on the journey.
U.S. State Division mentioned its personnel in Nigeria are working with the nation’s safety companies to analyze Tuesday’s assault. “The safety of our personnel is at all times paramount, and we take in depth precautions when organizing journeys to the sphere,” the State Division mentioned in an announcement.
It isn’t 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 mentioned it was regrettable that “a convoy of such or any associated will enter the state with out recourse to the police within the space or any safety company.”
The assault in Atani city, positioned 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the state capital, additional raised considerations concerning the security of residents and vacationers amid the separatist violence that has develop into rampant in Nigeria’s southeastern area in recent times.
Authorities have blamed the violence on a separatist group referred to as the Indigenous Individuals of Biafra which is main a marketing campaign for the area to interrupt away from the West African nation to type an unbiased nation. The separatists have develop into 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 — is just not negotiable.
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