Boko Haram

The May 8 editorial " Tactics under fire ," about the recent confrontation between Boko Haram militants and Nigerian government forces in the town of Baga, calls for a thorough investigation and accountability. Our government is taking resolute actions to ensure that both are accomplished swiftly and effectively. Upon learning of the incident — in which Nigerian security forces and troops from Cameroon, Chad and Niger were called on to repel a Boko Haram assault in this border region — President Goodluck Jonathan immediately...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Mobile phone service was cut off Thursday in areas of northeast Nigeria as jet fighters streaked through the sky and more soldiers were deployed to fight Islamic extremists waging a brutal insurgency. Witnesses saw low-flying Nigerian jet fighters over Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, which President Goodluck Jonathan placed under emergency rule on Tuesday along with Borno and Yobe states. However, soldiers have met "no resistance" yet from extremists who have taken...

FOR WEEKS after a clash between the Ni­ger­ian army and Islamic militants last month in the remote fishing village of Baga, it was difficult for outsiders to determine what had happened. Residents who fled to the state capital told the New York Times and human rights organizations that at least 180 people had been killed when the army went on a rampage, burning much of the village of thatch-roofed homes and shooting residents as they tried to flee. Ni­ger­ian officials claimed that only a handful of...

LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria rumbled to a war footing Wednesday as soldiers and equipment moved into its northeastern states as part of an emergency military campaign against Islamic extremists waging a bloody insurgency. In the last two days, Associated Press journalists and witnesses have seen armored tanks and soldiers moving through major roads and cities in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. Those states, crossing an arid region of some 155,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles)

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria I t's hard to find sadder places in Nigeria than those that have suffered attacks by Boko Haram, the underground fundamentalist Islamic organization. Christians are fearful of attending church. Muslims, who also face attacks by Boko Haram, express concern that government security forces indiscriminately hunting down the group's members consider their entire community to be the enemy. As one Muslim civic activist in this northeastern Ni­ger­ian city put it: "People don't know who to be more afraid of — Boko Haram...

LAGOS, Nigeria — At first, the Islamic extremists in Nigeria's dusty northeast rode on the backs of motorcycles, firing on government officials and other perceived enemies with worn Kalashnikov assault rifles hidden beneath their flowing robes. Now, they come prepared for war. When Islamic fighters drove into a town in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, they used anti-aircraft guns, mounted on the backs of trucks, to destroy nearly every landmark of the nation's federal...

The armed men dragged Musa Muhammad out of his house and ordered him to lie face down on the ground. Then they grabbed his son. After asking his name, the men issued their judgment. "I heard three gunshots — pop, pop, pop," Muhammad recalled, his voice trembling, his fingers in the shape of a pistol. "My son was dead, killed in front of me. " His assailants were not the radical Islamists who have brutalized this town. They were government security forces sent to protect the residents.

DIFFA, Niger This West African desert town hardly seems like the front line of an emerging struggle against terrorism. The market is bustling. Young men listen to French rap music blaring from boomboxes. Boys play soccer on unpaved roads. Yet the nearby border checkpoint with Nigeria, where hundreds of people once crossed back and forth daily, is now closed. Soldiers patrol the streets day and night. And a U.S. Special Forces captain and his comrades, who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, are here, training Niger's...

ABUJA, Nigeria — The Obama administration is renewing an offer to help Nigeria marshal military and intelligence resources against a growing extremist threat that U.S. officials fear could spread to neighboring nations, a U.S. official said Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's brief visit to Nigeria was focused largely on security concerns. U.S. officials have been frustrated by what many see as a slow and parochial response to the spread of a violent Islamist movement in the country's...

Ongoing violence in Nigeria has exacerbated tensions between the country's Muslims and Christians. Nigeria has equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, and 92 percent of the country's population says they pray every day, according to a 2010 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Hundreds of Christians and Muslims have died this year alone, including scores killed last weekend (July 7-8) when Muslim militants attacked Christian villages in the nation's central plateau, where the mostly Muslim north...

LAGOS, Nigeria — Admitting Islamic extremists now control some of his nation's villages and towns, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency Tuesday across the country's troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight what he said is now an open rebellion. President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking live on state radio and television networks, also warned that any building suspected to house Islamic extremists would be taken over in what he described as the "war" now...

LAGOS, Nigeria — The leader of an Islamic extremist group in Nigeria says his group has started kidnapping women and children as part of its bloody guerrilla campaign against the country's government, according to a video released Monday. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau says the kidnappings are retaliation for Nigerian security forces routinely imprisoning the wives and children of his group's members. The video shows 12 children, a mix of boys and girls, though...

The May 8 editorial " Tactics under fire ," about the recent confrontation between Boko Haram militants and Nigerian government forces in the town of Baga, calls for a thorough investigation and accountability. Our government is taking resolute actions to ensure that both are accomplished swiftly and effectively. Upon learning of the incident — in which Nigerian security forces and troops from Cameroon, Chad and Niger were called on to repel a Boko Haram assault in this border region — President Goodluck...

LAGOS, Nigeria — An ethnic militia killed at least 20 police officers who launched a raid to try and arrest them in central Nigeria, a police commissioner said Wednesday. The attack in Alakio, a village in Nasarawa state, saw the officers ambushed Tuesday when they tried to stop the gang that was forcing locals to take a blood oath, police commissioner Abayomi Akermale said. Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, has some 250 ethnicities. Such ethnic militias can be major...

LAGOS, Nigeria — At first, the Islamic extremists in Nigeria's dusty northeast rode on the backs of motorcycles, firing on government officials and other perceived enemies with worn Kalashnikov assault rifles hidden beneath their flowing robes. Now, they come prepared for war. When Islamic fighters drove into a town in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, they used anti-aircraft guns, mounted on the backs of trucks, to destroy nearly every landmark of the nation's...

FOR WEEKS after a clash between the Ni­ger­ian army and Islamic militants last month in the remote fishing village of Baga, it was difficult for outsiders to determine what had happened. Residents who fled to the state capital told the New York Times and human rights organizations that at least 180 people had been killed when the army went on a rampage, burning much of the village of thatch-roofed homes and shooting residents as they tried to flee. Ni­ger­ian officials claimed that only a...

LAGOS, Nigeria — An ethnic militia killed at least 20 police officers who launched a raid to try and arrest them in central Nigeria, a police commissioner said Wednesday. The attack in Alakio, a village in Nasarawa state, saw the officers ambushed Tuesday when they tried to stop the gang that was forcing locals to take a blood oath, police commissioner Abayomi Akermale said. Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, has some 250 ethnicities. Such ethnic militias can be major...

LAGOS, Nigeria — Admitting Islamic extremists now control some of his nation's villages and towns, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency Tuesday across the country's troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight what he said is now an open rebellion. President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking live on state radio and television networks, also warned that any building suspected to house Islamic extremists would be taken over in what he described...

The Jan. 12 front-page article " Obama, Karzai hasten handoff " included this statement by President Obama: "We achieved our central goal, or have come very close to achieving our central goal, which is to de-capacitate al-Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can't attack us again. " If Mr. Obama believes that we are close to eliminating al-Qaeda's capacities, he should tell the French soldiers who recently went into combat in Mali to prevent that country's takeover by al-Qaeda-allied guerrillas.

The armed men dragged Musa Muhammad out of his house and ordered him to lie face down on the ground. Then they grabbed his son. After asking his name, the men issued their judgment. "I heard three gunshots — pop, pop, pop," Muhammad recalled, his voice trembling, his fingers in the shape of a pistol. "My son was dead, killed in front of me. " His assailants were not the radical Islamists who have brutalized this town. They were government security forces sent to protect the residents.