Chinese Embassy Warns Nationals To Avoid Traveling To Kogi State

The Chinese embassy located in Lagos has advised all its nationals to avoid traveling to Kogi State, which comes under the North Central region of Nigeria.

The advisory was issued after reports of kidnappings and attacks happening on Chinese citizens and their businesses in Kogi State by terrorist organizations and kidnapper gangs.

"Terrorist organizations and kidnapper gangs active in Okane, Kogi State, Nigeria, and other areas are waiting for opportunities to kidnap or launch attacks on Chinese citizens and enterprises in Kogi State," the embassy stated, News24 reported.

The embassy urged all Chinese nationals in Nigeria to carefully watch possible danger around them, keep an eye on local security trends and follow security precautions. The Chinese nationals were also asked to make an effort to prevent kidnapping and assault cases by not traveling unless it is essential.

The embassy also shared some of the measures that Chinese nationals can take including putting "an end to outdoor and high-risk operations in the field, strengthening civil defense, physical defense, and technical defense measures... and reduce the number of Chinese personnel to the greatest extent."

The statement also mentioned that Chinese citizens should avoid going out at night or alone anywhere, calling it a non-essential, no-travel policy. There are approximately 40,000 to 100,000 Chinese nationals living in the country.

China and Nigeria have increased their trade relationship more than 10 times since 2003. China is Nigeria's top trading partner as they started with a $1.2 billion trade in 2003 reaching $13.7 billion in 2019.

Aside from trading, China has also funded several projects in Nigeria and provided employment in the country by hiring local firms for their development.

Construction of roads, railways and renovation of Nigeria's four major airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt are some of the projects that involve China.

In the last few months, there have been reports of many Chinese nationals getting kidnapped by criminal gangs and later asked for hefty ransoms to release them.

Last year, gunmen attacked a mining site in central Nigeria, killed many security people and kidnapped some workers from the site including four Chinese nationals. Another incident was reported last year where three Chinese nationals were kidnapped from a hydroelectric power plant.

In December, Nigerian Air Force rescued seven kidnapped Chinese nationals, who were abducted in June last year.

Samuel Aruwan, who works as Commissioner for Kaduna State Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, said after the rescue mission that seven Chinese expatriates were held hostage by terrorists.

"The rescued Chinese victims are believed to have been kidnapped in June 2022 by terrorists while working on a mining site in Ajata-Aboki, Gurmana Ward of Shiroro Local Government, Niger State," Aruwan said, PremiumTimes reported.