<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Gunmen attacked a US convoy in southeast Nigeria's Anambra State on Tuesday, police and a US official said, killing four people and abducting three others.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Separatists who operate in the region have escalated their attacks in recent years, usually targeting police or government buildings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"No US citizen was in the convoy," said police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gunmen "murdered two of the Police Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the consulate," he said, before setting their vehicle "ablaze".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The attack took place on Tuesday at "3:30pm (14:30 GMT) along Atani, Osamale road" in Ogbaru district, according to the police.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Joint security forces deployed to the scene, said Tochukwu, but the gunmen managed to abduct two police operatives and a driver.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A "rescue/recovery operation" was underway Tuesday evening, he added in his statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed the attack during a briefing with reporters in Washington DC.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A US convoy of vehicles was attacked. What I can tell you is that no US citizens were involved," Kirby said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The State Department also confirmed the attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"U.S. Mission Nigeria personnel are working with Nigerian security services to investigate," a spokesperson said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The security of our personnel is always paramount, and we take extensive precautions when organizing trips to the field."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Outlawed group -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nigerian officials often blame attacks in the southeast on the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra movement (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">IPOB has repeatedly denied responsibility for the violence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The group's leader Nnamdi Kanu is in government custody and faces trial for treason after being detained overseas and brought back to Nigeria.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Separatism is a sensitive issue in Nigeria, where a declaration of an independent Biafra Republic by Igbo army officers in the southeast in 1967 triggered a three-year civil war that left more than one million dead.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Violence in the southeast is just one of the many issues facing president-elect Bola Tinubu, who takes the helm of Africa's most populous nation later this month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The military is also battling a 14-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast, gangs who kidnap and kill in the northwest and central states and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a brief calm period during February and March elections for the presidency and governorships, attacks have been on the rise in the last few weeks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who ran and lost in the February 25 presidential election, is one of those contesting Tinubu's victory, claiming fraud.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The electoral commission has recognised "glitches" during the vote but has dismissed claims that the process was not free and fair. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>