In south-eastern Nigeria, seven police officers were killed in three attacks in the oil-oil state of Rivers, Nigerian police said on Saturday.
South-eastern Nigeria has seen an upsurge in attacks on security forces in recent weeks, which authorities attribute to separatist activists. On Friday evening, “gunmen in two vehicles attacked a checkpoint on the Choba Bridge, killing two policemen,” Rivers State Police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni said. , in a press release.
The same gunmen then attacked Rumuji police station, killing two policemen on duty. “Two of the attackers were seriously injured and died on the spot,” added the spokesperson. In a third attack, against the Elimgbu police station, three policemen were killed. “Security has been tightened in all state police stations,” the spokesperson stressed.
Tensions between the central power and the separatists of Ipob (Indigenous People of Biafra), a separatist group which campaigns for the independence of Biafra, remain strong in the region, more than 50 years after the end of the terrible civil war of Biafra. Biafra (1967-1970) which killed nearly a million people, most of them from the local Igbo ethnic group. The Ipob published at the beginning of the year videos of a new militia, called “Security network de l’Est “(ESN), in which we can see dozens or even hundreds of fighters in training.
