The United States (US) has urged its citizens to reconsider travel to Nigeria and authorised the departure of non\u2011emergency US government employees and their families \u200cfrom the embassy in Abuja, citing worsening security conditions across Africa\u2019s most populous nation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
US travel advisories often shape how investors, international organisations and airlines assess country risk. The move to allow staff departures signals heightened concern in Washington \u2060as kidnappings, banditry and attacks on security forces persist, particularly in northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In an updated advisory late on Wednesday, the State Department kept Nigeria at Level 3: Reconsider Travel, but added Plateau, Jigawa, Kwara, Niger and Taraba to states Americans were warned not to visit. That brings to 23 out of 36 the number of states under the \u201cDo Not Travel\u201d \u200ccategory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The \u2060US highlighted threats from Islamist insurgents in the northeast, criminal gangs in the northwest and ongoing violence in parts of southern and southeastern Nigeria, including oil\u2011producing regions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Last month, Washington warned of a \u201cterrorist threat\u201d \u2060against US facilities and affiliated schools in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The US reviews the advisory several times a year and has kept Nigeria at Level 3 \u2060or Level 4 for much of the past decade due to persistent insecurity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The US military has multiple MQ-9 drones operating \u2060in Nigeria alongside 200 troops to provide training and intelligence support to the military, which is fighting Islamist militants across the north.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31222,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-31221","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"US has urged its citizens to reconsider travel to Nigeria","published_date":"2026-04-09 14:00:42","news_description":"US has urged its citizens to reconsider travel to Nigeria","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31223,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31221\/revisions\/31223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}