Nigerian police rescue 2 US consulate staff members

A Nigerian police officer stops a car at a security checkpoint in Awka, Nigeria, on Feb 26, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

LAGOS — Two US consulate employees who were kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria's southern state of Anambra have been rescued by the police, a police spokesperson said on Friday.

The rescue mission was carried out during a raid on the gunmen's camp in a forest in an undisclosed area of the state on Friday morning, Anambra police spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga said in a statement.

The joint security forces rescued unhurt the two victims abducted during an attack on a US convoy along a road in the Ogbaru local government area of Anambra State on Tuesday, Ikenga said.

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"Operations are still ongoing, and further details will be communicated," he said.

According to a statement by the police on Thursday, the police suspected that some members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, which is agitating for an independent state in the southeastern region of the country, were responsible for the attack, which also left seven people dead.