Biafra protesters arrested in Nigeria

More than 30 pro-Biafra supporters were arrested after protests in southern Nigeria left one police officer dead, police said on Thursday.

More than 30 pro-Biafra supporters were arrested after protests in southern Nigeria left one police officer dead, police said on Thursday.

Rivers state police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni said 32 suspects were in custody after two days of what he said were “violent protests” in the state capital, Port Harcourt.

In the past few days, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group have intensified their calls for a separate state for the dominant Igbo ethnic group in southeast Nigeria.

That has sparked clashes with the military and police.

A unilateral declaration of an independent republic of Biafra in 1967 led to a 30-month civil war that left more than 1-million dead, most of them Igbos.

Omoni said a police sergeant attached to the riot squad was killed in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, when IPOB members seized his rifle.

On Tuesday, the group attacked the city’s police training school, he said.

Tensions are running high between IPOB supporters and the military, which began operations this week against rising crime across the south.

In Abia state, next to Rivers, a police station in the commercial hub of Aba was burnt down on Thursday, said police.

A three-day, dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in Abia on Tuesday to prevent clashes after IPOB said troops killed five of its members.