Following
increased terrorist attacks in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria,
the United States, Canadian and Taiwanese governments have warned their
nationals against non-essential travel to Nigeria.
A few days ago, the United States and
Canadian Embassies, in their travel advisories updates, urged their
citizens to avoid all but essential visits to certain parts of
Nigeria. The Taiwanese government cited fear of another terror attack on
Abuja, Nigeria’s capital for its security alert and urged its nationals
to avoid non-essential travel to Nigeria, especially during the coming
week.
According to Punch,
the travel warning issued by the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the
United States Department of State dated December 21, 2012 also warned of
increased kidnapping in the Niger Delta and armed attacks in parts of
the North.
The Department of State
warns U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to Nigeria, particularly
during the holiday season, and continues to recommend that U.S. citizens
avoid all but essential travel to the following states because of the
risk of kidnappings, robberies, and other armed attacks – Bayelsa,
Delta, Edo, Plateau, Gombe, Yobe, Kaduna, Bauchi, Borno, and Kano
states.
The Department also warns
against travel to the Gulf of Guinea because of the threat of piracy.
Based on safety and security risk assessments, the Embassy has placed
further restrictions for travel by US officials to all Northern Nigerian
states (in addition to those listed above); officials must receive
advance clearance by the US Mission for travel as being
mission-essential.
US citizens should be
aware that, in light of the continuing violence, extremists may expand
their operations beyond Northern Nigeria to the country’s middle and
Southern states. This Travel Warning replaces the Travel Warning for
Nigeria dated June 21, 2012.
Punch also reported that additional security measures
have been provided around major hotels including Transcorp, Sheraton
and NICON Luxury Hotels. Plain-cloth police as well as private guards
were seen scrutinizing vehicles and frisking visitors at the hotel.
This only increases people’s fear of travelling to
Nigeria, especially first time visitors to the country. What do you
think about the warning made by the embassies against non-essential
travelling to Nigeria?
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