(Abuja) Police in Nigeria have tightened security across the country, where the United States has ordered the families of its diplomatic personnel to leave Abuja, due to an “increased risk of terrorist attacks” on the capital.
Posted at 5:36 p.m.
While the nature of the threat remains unknown, residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been on high alert since last Sunday after several Western embassies issued warnings advising their citizens to limit their movement in the country on most populated in Africa.
In a statement released on Thursday evening, the Nigerian police called on all its high-ranking officers to “enhance security in their respective jurisdictions, especially in the FCT. »
The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, urged the six million inhabitants of the agglomeration to “remain vigilant” and to “report to the police any suspicious or abnormal event and person”.
For his part, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Friday that he was “assured that the government has the security situation under control”, calling on the inhabitants of Abuja not to “give in to panic”.
“The attacks are being foiled. Security guards dynamically eliminate threats […] Much of their work goes unseen and is necessarily confidential,” according to the presidency statement.
“Terrorism is a reality all over the world. However, this does not mean that an attack in Abuja is imminent,” the statement added.
The statements come a day after the US State Department initially ordered its non-essential employees and their families stationed in Abuja to leave the city. On Friday, the State Department clarified that the evacuation order applied to families and not to employees, who however have permission — not the order — to leave.
The United States has warned its citizens that “terrorists may attack” shopping malls, markets, hotels, restaurants, bars and schools in the capital.
Other countries, including the UK, Australia and Canada, issued similar warnings but had not as of Friday morning evacuated their employees or families from Abuja.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday praised the efforts undertaken by Nigeria and South Africa, countries for which a separate alert has been issued.
“We appreciate the efforts of our Nigerian partners to address security threats in Abuja and the rest of the country,” Mr. Price said.
On Thursday, the “Jabi Lake Mall”, a major shopping center in the capital, was temporarily closed for unspecified security reasons.
Under-equipped and under-funded, Nigerian troops are deployed on multiple fronts in this country plagued by endemic violence, fighting in particular against a jihadist insurgency and heavily armed gangs.
Jihadist groups operate in northeastern Nigeria, a thousand kilometers from Abuja, but have cells in other parts of Nigeria.
The last time one of these groups, Boko Haram, attacked the capital’s city center was in 2014.
But over the past six months, the Islamic State group in West Africa (Iswap) has claimed responsibility for several attacks around the FCT, including an attack on a prison that freed hundreds of detainees.