The police spokesman said, there was no US citizen in the convoy. (Representative)
Abuja, Nigeria:
Gunmen attacked a US convoy in southeast Nigeria’s Anambra state on Tuesday, killing four people and kidnapping three others, police and a US official said.
Separatists operating in the area have increased their attacks in recent years, usually targeting police or government buildings.
Police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu said there were no US citizens in the convoy.
The gunmen “killed two members of the police mobile force and two employees of the consulate,” he said, before “set fire” to their vehicle.
According to police, the attack took place on Tuesday at “3:30 pm (14:30 GMT) Atani, Osamale Road” in Ogburu district.
Tochukwu said joint security forces deployed to the scene, but the gunmen abducted two policemen and a driver.
“Rescue/recovery operations” were underway on Tuesday evening, they said in their statement.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed the attack during a briefing with reporters in Washington DC.
Kirby said, “An American convoy of vehicles was attacked. I can tell you there were no American citizens involved.”
The State Department has also confirmed the attack.
“Staff at the US Mission to Nigeria are working with Nigerian security services to investigate,” a spokesman said.
“The safety of our personnel is always paramount, and we take extensive precautions when conducting field trips.”
– illegal group –
Nigerian authorities often blame attacks on the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra Movement in the Southeast (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network.
IPOB has repeatedly denied responsibility for the violence.
The group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, remains in government custody and faces trial for treason after being detained overseas and brought back to Nigeria.
Separatism is a sensitive issue in Nigeria, where the 1967 declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra by Igbo army officers in the southeast sparked a three-year civil war that left more than one million people dead.
Violence in the southeast is one of many issues facing newly elected President Bola Tinubu, who will take charge of Africa’s most populous country later this month.
The army is also battling a 14-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast, kidnapping and murder gangs in the northwest and central states, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
After a brief calm period during the February and March elections for the presidency and governorship, attacks have increased in the past few weeks.
Former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, who ran and lost in the February 25 presidential election, is one of those contesting Tinubu’s victory, claiming fraud.
The Electoral Commission has recognized “improperties” during the vote, but rejected claims that the process was not free and fair.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)