State of emergency declared in Nigeria

HEAVILY armed troops and tanks patrolled the streets of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria yesterday, witnesses said, after the president declared a state of emergency in parts of the north affected by an Islamist insurgency.

President Goodluck Jonathan imposed the state of emergency on the northeast, the conflict-prone central city of Jos, and part of Niger state near Abuja on Saturday, and closed the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast.

Nearly a week after the radical sect Boko Haram set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57, Jonathan told state television his aim was to restore security in troubled parts of the north.