Goodluck Jonathan

* Gesture aims to win popular backing for offensive -source * Nigerian warplanes hitting militant camps in north LAGOS, Nigeria, May 21 - Nigeria said on Tuesday it would free a number of detained Islamists, including all female ones, in what a senior...

NIAMEY/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria has asked its northern neighbor Niger for help in an offensive against Boko Haram insurgents, as West African states try to cooperate against a spread of Islamist violence. An intelligence source in Niger...

MAIDUGURI, May 20 (Reuters) - Nigeria relaxed a curfew on Monday in parts of the northeast where its troops are mounting their biggest offensive yet against militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram. The Nigerian military has sent thousands of extra...

MAIDUGURI (Reuters) - Nigeria claimed an early success for its military offensive against Islamist insurgents in the northeast on Monday, saying the militants' activities had been stifled by nearly a week of attacks on their bases. Military officers in...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria offered an amnesty on Sunday to Islamist militants who surrender and said 17 people had been killed on the fifth day of a military operation to try to crush the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast. In their...

LAGOS, May 18 (Reuters) - Nigeria's military said on Saturday it had killed 10 insurgents and arrested 65 as part of an offensive meant to wrest back control of parts of its remote northeast from an Islamist group seen as the main security threat to...

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's military said on Saturday it had killed 10 insurgents and arrested 65 more as part of an offensive meant to wrest back control of parts of its remote northeast from an Islamist group seen as the main security threat to Africa's...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian warplanes struck militant camps in the northeast on Friday in a major push against an Islamist insurgency, drawing a sharp warning from the United States to respect human rights and not harm civilians. Troops...

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed a police station and a bank in a town in Nigeria's northwest, beyond a region covered by a military crackdown on a Islamist insurgency, a sign the offensive could provoke violence by smaller militant cells across...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Security forces in Nigeria have launched airstrikes against encampments of the Islamist militia Boko Haram as part of a major military operation in the country's northeast, military officials said Friday. The airstrikes hit...

* President Jonathan declared state of emergency on Tuesday * Aims to wrest control of remote areas from Islamists * U.S., rights groups fear abuses, worsening violence By Imma Ande YOLA, Nigeria, May 16 (Reuters) - Nigeria sent fighter jets in...

May 16 (Reuters) - KABUL - A suicide bomber in a car attacked a convoy of foreign troops in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including six Americans, in one of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital in months. - - - - UNITED NATIONS -...