US orders non-emergency government employees to depart Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria map
The United States has ordered its non-emergency government employees and family members of government employees to depart Abuja, Nigeria, citing a heightened risk of terrorist attacks.
The order was announced Thursday in an updated State Department advisory warning U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to the African country due to crime, terrorism, and other threats.
The order follows a warning from the United States and Britain on Sunday of an elevated risk of terror attacks in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
Nigeria is in a conflict with an Islamist insurgency primarily in the country’s northeast.
The Islamic State in July claimed responsibility for a raid on a prison in Abuja, freeing some 440 inmates and raising fears that insurgents were spreading further.
In addition to Abuja, the United States advised citizens not to travel to a number of Nigerian states, including Borno and Yobe in the northeast.
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