Six people were killed, including four police officers, during an attack by gunmen in Ebonyi state, southeastern Nigeria, on Friday.
The incident occurred near a police checkpoint on a road leading to the city of Abakaliki, according to state police spokesman Joshua Ukandu.
A shootout erupted between the armed men and police officers stationed at the checkpoint. Ukandu confirmed the deaths of four officers and two civilians caught in the crossfire.
The attackers, suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), managed to escape.
IPOB is a separatist group advocating for an independent state for the Igbo ethnic group.
The organization has been repeatedly accused of violence in the southeastern region, but they consistently deny involvement.
This attack highlights the simmering tensions surrounding separatism in Nigeria.
The country remains haunted by the memories of the Biafran War (1967-1970), a brutal conflict triggered by the declaration of an independent Biafra by Igbo military officers.
The war claimed the lives of over a million people.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu faces a multifaceted security challenge.
While grappling with the resurgence of separatist violence in the southeast, his administration also confronts banditry in the northwest and an ongoing insurgency waged by Boko Haram in the northeast.
