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Lagos: Suspected separatist militants killed 4 Nigerian police and two civilians throughout a gun battle whereas they had been on patrol within the nation’s southeast, police mentioned on Saturday.
The early Friday morning assault happened within the Ngor-Okpala space of Imo State, the place the Indigenous Individuals of Biafra (IPOB) separatist group and its armed wing, the Jap Safety Community (ESN), are lively.
Assaults blamed on IPOB have killed dozens of cops within the final two years in Nigeria’s southeastern states, the place the group agitates for a separate state for the ethnic Igbo folks.
“4 cops connected to Space Command Ngor-Okpala paid the supreme worth having engaged unsuspecting IPOB and ESN militia wearing black and pink regalias in a shoot out,” Imo state police mentioned in an announcement.
“Stray bullet from the miscreants killed two civilians.”
IPOB has consistently denied being behind assaults on police, native authorities workplaces and electoral company buildings.
Separatism is delicate in Nigeria, the place a declaration of an impartial Biafra Republic by Igbo military officers within the southeast in 1967 triggered a three-year civil conflict that left multiple million lifeless.
Africa’s most populous nation is sort of equally divided between the largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south, with scores of ethnic teams throughout the nation.
Separatist violence is only one safety problem dealing with President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu because the armed forces battle a 14-year-long jihadist insurgency within the northeast and closely armed bandit militias in northwest and central states.
Tinubu, a former Lagos governor, involves workplace subsequent month after profitable a February election marked by technical difficulties, delays and opposition claims of huge vote rigging.
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