US orders diplomats’ households to depart Nigeria’s capital

The State Department on Thursday ordered the households of US embassy staffers within the Nigerian capital to depart because of heightened fears of a terrorist assault because it repeated a warning for all Americans to rethink travelling to any a part of the nation and to not go to Abuja in any respect.

The announcement got here simply two days after the division mentioned it could enable nonessential personnel on the embassy in Abuja to depart voluntarily because of elevated safety issues.

It didn’t present particulars however the change recommended the US has indications that an assault could also be imminent.

“The department (has) ordered the departure of family members of US government employees from Abuja due to the heightened risk of terrorist attacks there,” it mentioned in a revised journey advisory for Nigeria.

Nigeria has battled an Islamic insurgency in its northeast for greater than a decade, however assaults have been uncommon in Abuja.

In 2011, Islamic extremists linked to the Boko Haram group focused the United Nations constructing there with a automobile bomb, killing 21 individuals.

The S embassy in Abuja has been warning since Sunday about an “elevated risk of terror attacks” within the metropolis, saying that potential targets embody authorities buildings, locations of worship and different public locations. It has urged Americans there to keep away from all nonessential actions and crowds.

The British mission in Nigeria has issued comparable alerts.

Nigeria’s secret and intelligence police, the Department of State Services, has known as for calm and has suggested that “necessary precautions” are being taken to forestall such assaults.