Africa

Africa

U.S. warns citizens on traveling to northern Nigeria

06 June 2013 02:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. has issued a travel alert on Nigeria, warning its citizens not to travel to northern Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states because of the state of emergency in the states, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

President Goodluck Jonathan on May 14 declared a state of emergency in the three states to restore public order, safety and security due to the spate of terrorist activities in the area.

In statement issued to reporters in Abuja on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said the ability of the U.S. Mission in Nigeria to provide assistance to its citizens in those states remains severely limited.

The statement said the department had continued to recommend that citizens avoid all but essential travels to some states in the country due to the risk of kidnappings, robberies and other armed attacks.

The Department also warned against travel to the Gulf of Guinea because of the threat of piracy.

The alert also cautioned U.S. citizens to be aware that extremists could expand their operations beyond northern Nigeria to the country's middle and southern states.