US consulate in Nigeria reopens
The US Consulate in Lagos reopened today after a phoned-in terrorist threat prompted it to close down last week.
Other missions on the same street that had closed after the Americans closed their consulate on Thursday also were open again today, but dozens of armed police still patrolled the road, stopping and searching cars. A police bomb squad van was parked near the US Consulate.
US Embassy spokesman Rudolph Stewart, speaking from the capital, Abuja, said Nigerian authorities had given “outstanding assistance and co-operation” in responding to the threat. Authorities in Nigeria have declined to give any details on what the fears were, but a spokeswoman for Germany-based US European Command – which also covers Africa – has said a called-in terrorist threat triggered the closure.
The consulates of Italy, Germany, Britain and Russia were among those that closed along with the Americans.
The closure in Nigeria, an Opec member, helped fuel a rise in oil prices, in a market already rallying on tightening product records in the US Last week’s four-day kidnapping of six oil workers in Nigeria subcontracted by Shell was also cited as a factor in the market rises.
The closure came amid US-led counterterrorism exercises with several African nations – including Nigeria – that are part of efforts to improve regional collaboration against terror threats.
Al Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden purportedly marked Nigeria for liberation in a release posted on the internet last year. The country of about 130 million is roughly evenly split between Christians and Muslims.
Political, ethnic and religious violence has claimed more than 10,000 lives since President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in a 1999 election, but the country has not experienced any terrorist bombings.
