<\/p>\n
Nigeria (AP) \u2014 Youths angry at the Nigerian government’s failure to fight
\nIslamic extremists threw stones Thursday at President Goodluck Jonathan’s
\nelectioneering convoy in the eastern city of Yola, breaking windshields
\nand windows on several vehicles. An Associated Press reporter was unable
\nto see if anyone was hurt.<\/p>\n
Police used tear gas and whips to disperse the mob.<\/p>\n
There were similar reports of the Nigerian leader being met by
\nstone-throwing crowds in Jalingo, capital of neighboring Taraba state.<\/p>\n
In Yola, soldiers guarded billboards and posters of Jonathan, who is
\nrunning for re-election Feb. 14. Protesters shouted that the troops should
\ninstead be fighting the Boko Haram insurgents blamed for the deaths of
\nsome 10,000 people in the past year.<\/p>\n
“Why are they using soldiers and other security operatives? They should be
\ndeployed to Sambisa and fight with Boko Haram, not with innocent
\ncivilians,” one youth yelled as he tore down a poster of a smiling
\nJonathan.<\/p>\n
Sambisa Forest is where the insurgents have camps and where they are
\nbelieved to be holding some of the 276 schoolgirls abducted from a
\nboarding school in the remote town of Chibok in April \u2014 a mass kidnapping
\nthat brought international outrage.<\/p>\n
Dozens of the girls escaped on their own but 219 remain missing, a
\nreminder of the failures of Nigeria’s government and military.<\/p>\n
Yola, capital of Adamawa state, is housing tens of thousands of people
\ndriven from their homes in the five-year-old insurgency.<\/p>\n
It is unclear if the more than 1 million people displaced by the
\ninsurgency will be able to vote. Hundreds of thousands have taken refuge
\nin neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. And it is not known how many tens
\nof thousands remain in more than 100 village and towns in the northeast
\nheld by the insurgents.<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram group has been attacking Cameroonian
\nvillages and troops, broadening the conflict and raising fears among
\nNigeria’s neighbors.<\/p>\n
A summit of the African Union in Ethiopia this week will address the need
\nfor a multinational force to fight the Nigerian extremists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria (AP) \u2014 Youths angry at the Nigerian government’s failure to fight Islamic extremists threw stones Thursday at President Goodluck Jonathan’s electioneering convoy in the eastern city of Yola,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n