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Women attend a demonstration calling on the government to rescue kidnapped school girls of a government secondary school Chibok, in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday May 5, 2014. Their plight &#8212; and the failure of the Nigerian military to find them &#8212; has drawn international attention to an escalating Islamic extremist insurrection that has killed more than 1,500 so far this year. Boko Haram, the name means "Western education is sinful," has claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping and threatened to sell the girls. The claim was made in a video seen Monday. The British and U.S. governments have expressed concern over the fate of the missing students, and protests have erupted in major Nigerian cities and in New York. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Boko Haram takes credit for abduction of Nigerian schoolgirls, threatens to sell them

By Ashish Kumar Sen - The Washington Times

** FILE ** In this Monday April 21, 2014, file photo, four female students of the government secondary school Chibok, who were abducted by gunmen and reunited with their families, walk in Chibok, Nigeria. (AP Photo/ Haruna Umar, File)

Nigeria police: 276 abducted girls still missing

Associated Press

In this Thursday, May, 17. 2012 photo released by Yellow sun ltd, actress Thandie Newton, left, and actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, right, act in a film ''Half of a yellow sun'' an adaptation of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book, in Calabar, Nigeria. The film stars an Oscar nominee, is set in Nigeria during a civil war, is based on an award-winning novel and the head of Nigeria’s censorship board reportedly loved it. Yet a week after the scheduled premiere of “Half of a Yellow Sun,” it still has not been shown in any theater in Nigeria. Nigerian government censors are effectively banning the film but they will not say why, director Biyi Bandele told The Associated Press on Thursday. He spoke in a telephone interview from his home in London, where the movie placed among the 10 most popular at cinemas over the Easter weekend. It debuts in the U.S. on May 16. It hasn’t opened in Nigeria yet because the censors may fear it could stoke tribal rivalries. The board hasn’t issued an explanation. The movie stars Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave” - the 2014 best picture Oscar) and Thandie Newton and is an adaptation of the book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is partly set during the 1967-1970 civil war when the southeast sought to break away from the federation, and it comes at a time when Nigeria is threatened by an Islamic uprising in the northeast, jeopardizing unity between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. A ban on the movie would perpetuate the conspiracy of silence that has kept Nigerians from discussing the civil war, a subject that was pointedly excluded from history lessons in schools, Bandele said. (AP Photo/ Yellow Sun Ltd)

Nigeria film encounters roadblock in Nigeria

By MICHELLE FAUL - Associated Press

An unidentified mother cries out during a demonstration with others who have daughters among the kidnapped school girls of government secondary school Chibok, Tuesday April 29, 2014, in Abuja, Nigeria. Two weeks after Islamic extremists stormed a remote boarding school in northeast Nigeria, more than 200 girls and young women remain missing despite a &#8220;hot pursuit&#8221; by security forces and desperate parents heading into a dangerous forest in search of their daughters. Some dozens have managed to escape their captors, jumping from the back of an open truck or escaping into the bush from a forest hideout, although the exact number of escapees is unclear. (AP Photo/ Gbemiga Olamikan)

Girls kidnapped in Nigeria forced to marry their terrorist captors: report

By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times

Illustration on Muslim oppression of women in Africa by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

MAY: Africa’s real war on women

By Clifford D. May

Flowers from the Netherlands decorate St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis arrives to celebrate an Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the the Vatican, Sunday, April 20, 2014. Francis is celebrating Christianity's most joyous day, Easter Sunday, under sunny skies in St. Peter's. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis, huge crowd joyously celebrate Easter

By Frances D'Emilio - Associated Press

FILE - In this Friday Feb. 14, 2014 file photo, anointing water is photographed in Johannesburg, South Africa. T.B. Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations has branches around the world, and a recent YouTube video even credits him with predicting the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. Joshua is one of the best-known preachers in Africa and among the most profitable in Nigeria, the go-to faith healer and spiritual guide for leaders such as the late Ghanaian president John Atta Mills, Malawian president Joyce Banda and former Zimbabwean prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The man who says he comes from the poor village of Arigidi is worth between $10 and $15 million based on assets, according to Forbes magazine, which in 2011 estimated his personal wealth. The church holds some 15,000 people with outside tents for the overflow and Sunday services are beamed worldwide. Yet critics say this wildly popular televangelist hinders efforts to curtail the spread of HIV and tuberculosis with testimonies by church-goers that faith and his holy water can cure both. He is also accused of taking advantage of his followers and tightly controlling those closest to him, who call him &quot;Daddy.&quot;(AP Photo/Carley Petesch, file)

Nigeria preacher: Healer or controversial leader?

By CARLEY PETESCH - Associated Press

Damaged buses are seen at the scene of an explosion at a bus park in Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, April. 14, 2014. Suspected Islamic militants struck at the heart of Nigeria with a massive rush-hour explosion at a bus station Monday that killed 71, with the toll expected to rise in the deadliest attack yet on the nation&#8217;s capital. (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

Police: Blast in Nigerian capital kills 71

By Bashir Adigun and Michelle Faul - Associated Press

People gather at the site of a blast at the Nyanya Motor Park, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the center of Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, April 14, 2014. An explosion blasted through a busy commuter bus station on the outskirts of Abuja before 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) Monday as hundreds of people were traveling to work. (AP Photo/Gbemiga Olamikan)

Blast kills 71 in Nigerian capital: Police

Associated Press

In this photo taken Thursday, March 27, 2014, cars queue at a petrol station in Lagos, Nigeria, as fuel shortages force people to queue for long periods and even sleep in their cars as they wait for their turn at the pump. For weeks, Nigeria, west Africa's biggest petroleum producer, has been dogged by yet another fuel shortage, with no diesel to run generators, fuel for cooking or petrol for cars. (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

Nigeria overtakes South Africa as continent’s biggest economy

By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times

Prince Adetokunbo Sijuwade, whose family holds royal status in a vital corner of southern Nigeria, said "The Obama administration has to focus more on Nigeria. We feel that we can learn from the U.S. in terms of expertise." (Lloyd Villas/The Washington Times)

Nigerian prince says China is winning with investment push in largest African economy

By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times

In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron is photographed inside the Constitutional Court In Johannesburg. In his published book “Justice: A Personal Account,” Cameron traces the hardship of his early life. Through a top education, he discovered the law as a way to repair a racially torn society and his own life, as well as the 1986 discovery that he was HIV positive.(AP Photo/Madelene Cronjé) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

South African judge opens up

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA - Associated Press

In this photo taken Wednesday, Sept, 18. 2013, Nollywood actors perform a scene in Lagos, Nigeria. A 15-second drum roll and the title of the film, “Deceptive Heart,” comes crashing onto the screen in a groovy 1970s font. Less than 10 minutes into the Nollywood movie, the heart of plot is revealed: A woman has two boyfriends and doesn’t know what to do. The story moves as quickly as the film appears to have been shot. Some scenes are shaky, with cameras clearly in need of a tripod, and musical montages are often filled with pans of the same building. Most Nollywood movies are made in less than 10 days and cost about $25,000. (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

Nigeria’s Nollywood: most prolific movie machine

By HEATHER MURDOCK - Associated Press

Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

BANDOW: Unlocking prosperity in a corrupt Nigeria

By Doug Bandow

21 killed in shooting at Nigeria State Security HQ

By BASHIR ADIGUN - Associated Press

In this Saturday, Feb, 22. 2014 photo released by National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), displaced people receive relief aid, in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Living in fear and hunger, some quarter million Nigerians forced from their homes this year by an Islamic uprising are surviving in the bush, overcrowded with relatives and friends or in squalid camps where 500 share one latrine, a new report says. The National Emergency Management Agency describes dire conditions for people already traumatized by the loss of loved ones, belongings, homes and livelihoods in northeast Nigeria. In all, more than 3 million people &#8212; a third of the population &#8212; are suffering from the insurgency that has killed thousands and driven tens of thousands of farmers from their land, the agency said in the first report on the humanitarian plight created by the insurgency in Nigeria. It was made available to The Associated Press on Thursday, March 27, 2014. (AP Photo/ NEMA)

Islamic uprising in Nigeria causes 3 million to suffer

Associated Press

Pa. man seeing first winter doesn’t want it to end

By BRANDIE KESSLER - Associated Press

Attacks on Christian villages in Nigeria leave 100 dead

By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times