The United States has given explanation on the evacuation of its citizens from the nation's capital, Abuja. It said on Friday that it was evacuating families out of Abuja due to a security threat but not diplomats as widely reported.

A State Department statement on Thursday said the United States had ordered that families as well as non-emergency personnel should leave Abuja as part of the precautions after an earlier warning to its citizens in the nation's capital.

The State Department clarified on Friday that the order to leave applied only to family members and that non-essential workers were being given the choice but were not required to depart.

“The Department of State made the decision to recommend ordered departure for (family members) in Abuja out of an abundance of caution related to an elevated risk of terror attacks in Nigeria,” a department spokesperson said.

Details of the threat have not been released but Nigeria has been on high alert since Sunday after the United States and several other Western nations raised their travel alerts.

Nigerian security forces are battling jihadist fighters mostly in the northeast of the country, but Islamic State-allied militants have claimed several recent attacks near the capital.

The United States has also warned of the risk of a terror attack in South Africa, leading authorities there to insist that a series of weekend events were properly protected.

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