Quote:Gunmen attacked a convoy of U.S. embassy staffers in Nigeria Tuesday.

Two staffers were shot to death, as were two policemen.

The assailants opened fire on the convoy along a major road in Ogbaru local government area in Anambra State, one of the epicenters of separatist violence in the region, according to the police. “The hoodlums murdered two of the Police Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the Consulate, and set their bodies ablaze and their vehicles,” said Tochukwu Ikenga, a police spokesman in Anambra.

A joint team of security forces was deployed to the scene but arrived only after the assailants escaped with two other police officers and one of the drivers, Ikenga added. He said no U.S. citizen was on the trip.

When they say “escaped with,” they appear to mean “kidnapped,” as Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) explained.

While the staffers were part of the U.S. Embassy staff, none of the people killed or taken were Americans, according to reports.

It’s not clear what the convoy was doing in the area and the State Department claimed they had taken “extensive precautions,” but it doesn’t sound like whatever precautions they took were successful.

The AP pointed to a possible group that could be behind the attack.

Authorities have blamed the violence on a separatist group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra which is leading a campaign for the region to break away from the West African nation to form an independent country. The separatists have become more violent in the last few years as they continue to demand a referendum and since the trial of its leader Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism charges.

Mills suggested the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram might have been behind the attack. RedState will keep you updated if there are further developments.