Four US embassy employees killed in a convoy attack in Nigeria

Four employees of the US embassy in Nigeria died on Tuesday when armed men attacked a convoy North America in the state of Anambra, located southeast of that African country.

The gunmen “killed two mobile police officers and two consulate employees” and then they set fire to it next to their vehicle, said Ikenga Tochukwu, deputy superintendent of police. At the same time, he specified that the assailants, noting the presence of the police, “taken two policemen and a driver of the second vehicle of the convoy”.

According to local media, the victims were in the region perform humanitarian tasks, when they were “ruthlessly killed in an ambush”. Witnesses said they were conducting “a medical campaign to provide relief to rural areas along the river,” he posted Keeper.

In a statement, Ikenga Tochukwu noted that the security forces had begun a rescue and recovery operation in the Ogbaru area, where the incident took place.

For his part, John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, confirmed the attack and specified that no citizen of his country was injured.

“We are aware of some casualties, maybe even some deaths, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of where we are now,” the official said at a news conference.

Southeastern Nigeria is target of attacks by separatist groups for several years, which are usually directed at police or government buildings.

More attacks in central-northern Nigeria: 45 dead

At least 45 people died, mostly women and children this Tuesday after an attack by gunmen on several towns in Plateau state in north-central Nigeria.

“I can confirm that at least 45 bodies were recovered, mostly children and women, including pregnant women, after an attack by armed men on the villages of Kubat and Fungzai,” in the Mangu area, Paul told EFE by telephone. President of Plateau State Youth Ethnic Nationalities Coalition.

In that sentence, Dakete added, “The attackers, who were Fulani herdsmen, raided the two towns on Monday night and wreaked havoc among the villagers until early today.” “It’s disturbing that most of the victims were women and children,” he added.

Dakete said the attackers also razed several houses during the attack, adding that more bodies are still being searched for. Likewise, he regretted that law enforcement failed to save the day despite receiving distress calls from locals. “This is the fourth attack in recent years (in the Mangu area), but the scale of this latest attack is unprecedented,” he said.

For his part, Alfred Alabo, spokesman for the Plateau State Police, confirmed the incident in a statement, but did not provide the number of victims.

The spokesman explained that the police confronted the “bandits” and that their “great firepower” forced them to abandon their motorcycles and vehicles “used for their disastrous activities”.

These types of attacks by “bandits” – a term used in the country to indicate the criminal gangs who carry them out – are not common in the state of Plateau, where clashes between predominantly Christian farming communities and ethnic shepherds are frequent. Muslims, due to differences in land use and scarce natural resources available.

Plateau, however, borders Kaduna State which, along with other northwestern Nigerian states, faces relentless attacks by armed men and mass kidnappings for lucrative ransoms.

Added to this insecurity in northwest Nigeria is that recorded since 2009 in the northeast by the jihadist group Boko Haram and, since 2016, through its split, by the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).

With information from EFE.

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