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 serious street 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 Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the Consulate, and set their bodies ablaze and their vehicles,” 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 law enforcement officials and one of many drivers, Ikenga added. He mentioned no U.S. citizen was on the journey.

U.S. State Department mentioned its personnel in Nigeria are working with the nation’s safety companies 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 mentioned in a press release.

It is just not 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 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 change into rampant in Nigeria’s southeastern area in recent times.

Authorities have blamed the violence on a separatist group often called 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 change into extra violent in the previous couple of years as they proceed to demand a referendum and for the reason that trial of its chief Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism expenses.

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.