By AFP

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Suspected separatists in southeast Nigeria have killed three policemen and wounded two others, police on Friday.

Gunmen on Thursday stormed a police checkpoint in Enugu, the capital of Enugu state, a senior police officer told AFP.

"We lost three officers" and two more were wounded, he said.

State police spokesman Daniel Ndukwe confirmed the attack but refused to confirm the toll.

"Information surrounding the incident is still sketchy. Meanwhile, a manhunt for the hoodlums has been initiated," he said.

Southeast Nigeria has seen a surge in violence, with more than 130 police and other security personnel killed by gunmen since last year, according to local media tallies.

Authorities have blamed attacks on either the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra or IPOB movement, which is campaigning for a separate state for the ethnic Igbo people, or its armed wing, known as ESN.

The group has denied responsibility for the violence. 

Separatist movements in Nigeria are particularly sensitive, after a 1967 unilateral declaration of an independent Biafra republic by dissident Igbo army officers sparked a 30-month civil war.

More than one million people died, most of them Igbos, from the impact of conflict, hunger and disease.