STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN THREE PARTS OF NIGERIA FOLLOWING AN INCREASE IN ISLAMIST ATTACKS

According to Nigeria's president; terrorist groups have taken women and children hostage and murdered state officials.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in three parts of his country following an increase in violence from Islamist groups.

States applied to the  emergency rules includes  Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the northeast of Nigeria where Islamist sect Boko Haram is reported to have intensified its attacks on security forces and government targets.
"We are facing ... a rebellion and insurgency by terrorist groups which pose a very serious threat to our national unity," President Jonathan said in a televised address.
"They have attacked government buildings and facilities. They have murdered innocent citizens and state officials. They have set houses ablaze, and taken women and children as hostages. These actions amount to a declaration of war."



Evidence surfaced to indicate  that Boko Haram now control parts of the northeastern territory around Lake Chad, where local government officials have fled.
Security officials say they control at least 10 local government areas of northeast Borno state, the heart of the uprising.
Dozens of Boko Haram fighters in buses and machine gun-mounted trucks attacked the town of Bama last week, freeing more than 100 prison inmates and leaving 55 people dead, mostly police and other security forces.
Days earlier, scores were killed in the fishing village of Baga, also in Borno, on the shores of Lake Chad, after troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad raided it in the hunt for anti-government rebels.