Police in the volatile West African country said Tuesday that two US embassy employees in Nigeria were shot dead along with two police officers traveling in a convoy, while three others were kidnapped. was done.
The group was on a humanitarian mission when it came under attack in one of the epicenters, the Ogval municipality area of the country’s Anambra state. separatist violence Police spokesman for Anambra Tochukwu Ikenga said in the area:
Ikenga said US citizens were not on the trip.
A US State Department spokesman said: “We have confirmed that there was an incident in Anambra state on May 16. Mission Nigeria officials are cooperating with Nigerian security officials to investigate.” “The safety of our personnel is always our top priority and we are taking great care when planning our trips to the site. We have no further comment at this time.”
Details of the attack were not disclosed.
A joint team of security forces was dispatched to the scene but arrived after the attackers, along with two other police officers and a driver, fled, Ikenga added.
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A consular employee and two police officers were killed in an attack on a US convoy in Nigeria, officials said Tuesday. (Fox News)
“Thugs killed two police task force members and two consular officials and set fire to bodies and vehicles,” Ikenga said.
It was not immediately clear what trips the U.S. embassy staff in Anambra had taken, or how many people were in the convoy.
Ikenga said it was regrettable that “a convoy of such persons and their associates would enter the state without recourse to local police and security agencies.”
The attack in the town of Atani, 59 miles from the state capital, has heightened concerns for the safety of residents and tourists amid recent rampant separatist violence in southeast Nigeria.
Nigeria has seen a spate of deadly attacks against remote communities in recent months.
On Tuesday, gunmen stormed villages in the troubled central-north region, killing 29 people and destroying homes and survivors.
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Gunmen targeted three villages in the Mang municipality area of Plateau state late Monday night, where they opened fire or set fire to homes, killing several people, according to a resident.
In April, two separate attacks killed 50 people and officials said they were linked.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
