Four police officers among six dead in Nigerian attack
Lagos, Nigeria (AFP) — Armed men accused of belonging to a separatist group killed six people, including four police officers, in southeastern Nigeria’s Ebonyi state, police said on Saturday.
The attack occurred early on Friday near a police checkpoint on a road near the city of Abakaliki, said state police spokesman Joshua Ukandu.
A shootout began in which four officers died and two civilians were killed in the crossfire, he added.
The attackers were still on the run;
They are alleged to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, which advocates a separate state for the Igbo ethnic group.
Attacks in the southeast are often blamed on IPOB, which systematically denies any involvement in the violence.
Separatism is a sensitive topic in Nigeria, where a three-year civil war broke out in 1967 after Igbo army officers declared an independent Biafra state.
More than a million people died.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is also grappling with violence by armed groups in the northwest, known locally as “bandits”, and jihadist insurgents in the northeast.
