Nigerian police and the State Department reported Tuesday an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convoy in the country. According to authorities, a group of gunmen attacked several cars carrying embassy personnel and killed four people. Two of the deceased were workers at the American consulate in Lagos and two others were members of the Nigerian Police Force. In addition, three other people were kidnapped after the attack.
According to the State Department, none of the victims are U.S. nationals. No Americans were injured either, since no travelers in the convoy were Americans. All the victims are Nigerian nationals.
John Kirby responds to reports that a US convoy came under attack in Nigeria:
"It does look like a US convoy vehicle was attacked. What I can tell you is that no US citizens were involved and so, therefore, there were no US citizens hurt."pic.twitter.com/CuZebwg6NR
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 16, 2023
According to Nigerian authorities, the armed group opened fire on the Embassy convoy in the Ogbaru area of Anambra State. According to the Nigerian Police, the attackers then set fire to the cars along with the bodies of the deceased.
In Anambra there are several armed groups with a separatist ideology. In the 1960s and 1970s, most of Anambra State was part of the secessionist self-proclaimed republic of Biafra. There are many pending accounts of this separatist conflict in the region. Nigerian authorities specifically target the Indigenous People of Biafra, an armed separatist group, as the perpetrator of the attack.
BREAKING - DEADLY: The attack on US convoy in #Nigeria today killed four people, including two personnel from the US consulate and two police officers, US officials have confirmed after @whitehouse John Kirby tried to downplay it by saying that no US citizens were not hurt. Well,… pic.twitter.com/NE2KPUDJNb
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) May 16, 2023
The State Department said its security personnel in the country are working with Nigerian forces to investigate what happened on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on the same day that Secretary of State Blinken held a telephone meeting with Nigeria's President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A day earlier, the State Department announced that it would impose visa sanctions on Nigerian nationals who attempted to sabotage the 2023 democratic elections.
