Lagos, Nigeria (AFP) — Armed men accused of belonging to a separatist group killed six people, including four police officers, in southeastern Nigeria’s Ebonyi state, police said on Saturday.

The attack occurred early on Friday near a police checkpoint on a road near the city of Abakaliki, said state police spokesman Joshua Ukandu.

A shootout began in which four officers died and two civilians were killed in the crossfire, he added.

The attackers were still on the run;

They are alleged to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, which advocates a separate state for the Igbo ethnic group.

Attacks in the southeast are often blamed on IPOB, which systematically denies any involvement in the violence.

Separatism is a sensitive topic in Nigeria, where a three-year civil war broke out in 1967 after Igbo army officers declared an independent Biafra state.

More than a million people died.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is also grappling with violence by armed groups in the northwest, known locally as “bandits”, and jihadist insurgents in the northeast.