Armed men assaulted a U.S. convoy in southeast Anambra state on Tuesday, killing two police officers and two members of the embassy staff. Nigerian and American authorities are now looking into the incident. The terrorists, according to Nigerian authorities, also kidnapped two police officers and a driver.
Tochukwu Ikenga, a spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, stated on Wednesday that authorities are looking for both the offenders and the three victims who were kidnapped.
Ikenga claimed that the region was known for separatist violence and that local authorities were not made aware of the passage of the American convoy until after the attack.
According to the police, the attackers opened fire on the motorcade, killed the officers and employees of the U.S. embassy, and then set the bodies on fire alongside the vehicles.
There is no doubt that the assailants targeted the U.S. convoy for attack, according to analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Security Consulting.
According to him, “These vehicles had diplomatic numbers (license plates) and were escorted by security.” Therefore, it was obvious that whoever targeted them, it was a targeted attack.
There were no Americans in the convoy, according to Nigerian police and White House national security adviser John Kirby.
Authorities suspect separatist agitators in the area but no group has claimed credit for the attack.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), according to security personnel, are to blame for the rise in violence in the southeast.
However, security analyst Chidi Omeje stated that rather than merely Biafran separatist activity, the incident is a reflection of a broader decrease in security.
It only goes to show that the Southeast’s security concern is still very much a problem, he added. “There are criminals who take advantage of this circumstance and conduct these types of crimes, so I don’t want to think that every crime committed in the Southeast at the moment is being committed by IPOB. The embassy should have been aware that insecurity now poses a concern to the southeast region.
The IPOB wants to create Biafra, an independent state, by seceding from Nigeria’s southeast.
In the late 1960s, the movement led to a civil war that resulted in the death of an estimated one million Biafrans, largely from famine.
In an effort to sabotage elections, the region has experienced an increase in violence in recent years, including numerous raids on the headquarters of the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Less than two weeks before the commencement of a new presidential administration, Adamu suggested the most recent incident would have consequences.
“Because it’s in a period of transition, the attackers would have known the repercussions of attacking a diplomatic convoy during a period of transition would be far-reaching, and so whether the objective is to affect the transition or not, the result is the same,” he added. “Various security agencies issued warnings about plans to end the transition process,”
A visa suspension was announced by the US State Department on Monday for Nigerian nationals who harmed the voting process.
Anyone who was subject to the prohibition was not immediately identified by the government.
