Nigeria: State of Emergency Declared

Admitting that Islamist extremists now control some of his nation’s villages and towns, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday across Nigeria’s troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight what he said is now an open rebellion. Mr. Jonathan warned that any building suspected of housing Islamist extremists would be taken over in what he described as the “war” now facing Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. The president offered an unusually stark depiction of the state of affairs, though it is unclear what the emergency powers will do to halt the violence, as a similar effort failed to stop the bloodshed in the past.