Police in Nigeria say they have rescued two kidnapped US embassy staff members who are in good health, just days after seven people traveling in the same convoy were killed.
On Tuesday, the Ogbaru neighborhood in the city’s southeast was attacked; the area has been under curfew for the past year due to security concerns.
According to a local official, the attackers opened fire on the vehicles before setting fire to the bodies inside. It is still unknown who the shooters were.
Some government officials blame Igbo separatist fighters from the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) who are active in the area. In the face of these allegations, Ipob has remained silent.
President Muhammadu Buhari will step down at the end of this month after promising and failing to end Nigeria’s security crisis, but he insists that his government is “committed to fishing out” those responsible for Tuesday’s attack.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the public that no Americans had been killed and that there were “no indications at this time that it was a targeted attack against our mission.”
Among the seven people killed on Tuesday were three Nigerian employees and four security escorts. Police have not released the identities of the two victims who were kidnapped and later released.
“Operations are still ongoing,” says Anambra state police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu, and “further details shall be communicated.”
