Leaders of an African nation have sent a letter to Sony executives demanding an apology for the way Nigerians and other Africans were depicted in District 9, one of this year’s blockbuster summer movies.

From the Associated Press

“Information Minister Dora Akunyili has asked movie houses in the capital of Abuja to stop screening “District 9″ because the South Africa-based sci-fi movie about aliens and discrimination makes Nigerians look bad.

We have directed that they should stop public screening of the film,” she said. “We are not happy about it because it portrays Nigeria in bad light.”

Nigerian officials are offended by the barbaric and cannibalistic behaviors in the film portrayed by Africans.  As of today Sony officials have not responded to the letter.

While the movie was released in North America in August it was released in Africa a few days ago.  The objections to the film are growing as a Facebook Group, Nigerians Offended By District 9, has more than 630 members

The founder of the group also created a video explaining his cause.

Kenya’s Oldest Student Dies at 90
Kenya’s oldest student, a great-grandfather, passed away at 90. Kimani Nganga Maruge made the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest person to start primary school at 84, the BBC reports. Maruge had two years left before he finished. He didn’t have the chance to go to school when he was younger and wanted to learn how to read the Bible and study math, so he enrolled in Kapkenduywa primary school in 2004, shortly after the government brought in free schooling. He visited the United States in 2005 to advocate for education for the poor. When his home was burned down last year after the nation’s post-election violence, he had to move to a home for elderly people. He remained committed to his education, though, even asking that teachers come to his home to teach him after he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, according an official from the home. “He was a very courageous man. Even if you don’t see it through to the end, you will still have achieved something,” said Mumbi Kamuri, who leads the Cheshire Homes in Kenya where Maruge lived for the past year.
 

Nigerian Police Round Up Thousands During Raid on Islamic Camp
Police in Nigeria rounded up held almost 4,000 members of the Islamic sect, Darul Islam, “based on a fear of them becoming violent,” a police official told CNN. On Saturday, 3,950 members were “evacuated” from their camp in Mokawa and were being held in a school building. No word yet on whether or not charges will be brought against the group.  The Darul Islam community was formed with people who wanted to follow strict Islamic principles, the news service reports.

Fighting between armed forces and Islamist militants have left at least 39 people dead in Nigeria, the BBC reports. Men from the militant group, Boko Haram (“Western education prohibited,” translated in English), attacked a Bauchi police station with guns and explosives and security forces fought back by attacking a nearby settlement, according to reports. The militants attacked the station because of the arrest of some of the group’s leaders, one Boko Haram member told Reuters. The group wishes to “clean the system which is polluted by Western education and uphold Sharia [Islamic law] all over the country,” he said. As a result of the conflict, police say that more than 150 people have been arrested.

A human rights group is accusing Nigerian police of killing about 130 people during the nation’s sectarian riots last year, the BBC reports. The group, Human Rights Watch, wants the officers to be prosecuted. “In responding to the inter-communal violence, the Nigerian police and military were implicated in more than 130 arbitrary killings, mostly of young Muslim men,” said a spokesman for the group. “[We] call on government authorities to promptly arrest and prosecute those responsible.” But police leaders deny and killings and say that, according to some eye witnesses, there were gunmen posing as police. “The police who were sent to restore peace cannot turn around again to kill the harmless civilians they were supposed to protect,” a police spokesman said, reports the BBC. The rioting started after a Muslim-backed candidate was believed to have lost an election for council leader. The HWR says about 700 people died in the fighting between Muslims and Christians.

Truce Called in a Violent Nigerian Region Rebels in an oil-rich region of Nigeria, a place that has often been the scene of violent clashes, have decided to declare a 60-day ceasefire, the BBC reports. The group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), declared the ceasefire after one its leaders was released from a Nigerian jail. MEND militants have been fighting government forces in the region for a fair share of the area’s oil wealth by allegedly kidnapping oil workers and stealing oil. Government officials see the period as an opportunity to bring peace to the troubled region. “That’s a good time for us to work with them [MEND], chat with them and come out with some conclusions,” minister for the delta region, Ufot Ekaette told the BBC. But, not too long after the ceasefire was declared, members of MEND accused government forces of moving towards one of their camps. “Barely 12 hours into our ceasefire, the military Joint Task Force (JTF) has dispatched seven gunboats with heavily armed troops from Warri and are headed towards one of our camps…If this information from a very reliable source within the JTF happens to be true, the ceasefire will be called off with immediate effect,” a statement from the group said. Government officials deny MEND’s claim, but did say that the military will continue to escort oil workers in the region, reports the BBC.

Somali Gunmen Kidnap French Advisers Somali gunmen kidnapped two French advisers from a Mogadishu hotel earlier this week, reports CNN. The two advisers were in the country assisting Somalia’s government with security, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. About 10 gunmen pushed their way into the Sahafi hotel Tuesday morning – a hotel that serves many international visitors – and walked the two hostages (who were blindfolded and bound) from the hotel to an insurgent stronghold, CNN reports. The east African nation has been without a stable government since the early 1990s. Islamist insurgency has been rampant in the nation and clashes between insurgents and pro-government forces have led to many Somalis fleeing the capital, Mogadishu.

Bermudians Ask Leader to Resign
During a protest in front of the island’s Parliament, hundreds of Bermudians called for Premier Ewart Brown to resign, the BBC reports. The protests stem from Brown’s decision to allow four Guantanamo Bay prisoners into Bermuda without conferring with the British governor (the island is a British territory). Protesters say Dr. Brown behaved like a dictator, and they chanted “Brown must go” during the demonstration. The prisoners are Chinese and are a part of the country’s Muslim Uighur minority, reports the BBC. U.S. authorities and courts have long concluded that the prisoners aren’t dangerous.
Teen Pregnancies Rise in Nigeria
The percentage of teens and young women who have unplanned pregnancies has risen, according to a report from the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute. In 1990, 10 percent of pregnancies among young women aged 15-24 were unplanned; in 2003 the amount rose to 16 percent. In addition to contraceptives not being used as often, the nation’s authorities had not done enough to educate young Nigerians about sex, the report says. The report also found that the percentage of young women who knew where to get contraception dropped significantly, from 32 percent to 18 percent. “We are failing Nigerian adolescents when it comes to providing them with the information and services,” said one of the report’s authors. “They need to delay marriage and avoid unintended pregnancies.” The report used data from the country’s authorities and non-governmental organizations, reports the BBC

Over 150 Inmates Escape From Nigerian Jail
After breaking a hole in the prison’s ceiling, over 150 inmates escaped from Nigeria’s Enugu prison. Guards saw prisoners jumping over the wall from the roof of a cell block. Officials were able to capture and return all of the inmates but 20. According to authorities, the aging prison is overcrowded. Prisoner contempt was also a motive for the mass escape. “The prisoners who escaped were agitated at the serious delays in the judicial process,” Olushola Ogundipe, the Comptroller General of Nigeria’s prison service, told reporters. Out of the total 987 prisoners at the facility, 724 have not been convicted, reports the BBC. “You know the inmates, everyone wanted their case to be heard. We are still bringing the situation under control,” Ogundipe said. In addition, prisoners often struggle living hot, cramped filthy cells.  Authorities are currently reviewing inmate cases and releasing those who were wrongly jailed. The chief judge was set to return Friday to complete the prisoner release program. No word on whether the prisoners who tried to escape would still be up for release, reports the news service.

No More Burning Thieves Alive, Guinea Rights Group Says
Human rights group in Guinea are firing back after a member of government suggested that robbers be burned alive. Capt. Moussa Tiegoro Camara proposed the highly controversial idea at a meeting to discuss security in the nation’s capital city Conakry with other officials. “I am asking you to burn alive armed bandits who are caught red-handed,” he said, reports Reuters. The nation’s prisons are too overcrowded, he said. “Our jails and our correctional centers can no longer take in people and the situation cannot carry on like this.” But rights groups called the proposal “unacceptable” and “intolerable,” adding that the nation’s laws should not be disregarded. Crime has been on the rise in the capital recently, reports the BBC. After the country’s longtime leader, Lansana Conte, passed away last year the country has stepped up its fight against drugs and corruption, the news service reports.

Nigerian Soccer Fan Runs Over Rival’s Fans Local police say a Manchester United football fan in Nigeria killed four people when he plowed his minibus into a group of Barcelona fans following his team’s loss, reports the BBC. There were also 10 people wounded in the tragedy. “The driver passed the crowd, then made a U-turn and ran into them,” a police spokesman told Reuters. United lost the European Champion League Final to Barcelona 2-0. Bitterness over the loss is a likely motive. “The man confessed to doing it on purpose. He now says he doesn’t know why he did it, but it was an intentional act,” a police spokeswoman told the BBC.  European soccer teams are popular in the west African nation, and the league often snags Africa’s best players.

 
Haitian Activist Dies Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian Roman Catholic priest and activist, died in a Miami hospital Wednesday following a stroke. He was 62. After leaving his native Haiti for the United States, Father Jean-Juste founded the Haitian Refugee Center in the late 1970s. When Haitians were being deported from the country, he tried to make sure they at least were properly considered for asylum. After returning to Haiti in the 1990s, he became a supporter of former leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is now exiled

Somali Pirates Attack Another U.S. Ship

Almost a week after successfully attacking the U.S. ship the Maersk Alabama, Somali pirates attacked another U.S. vessel Tuesday using rocket-propelled grenades and weapons, reports the BBC. This time, however, they were not able to actually get onboard. The Liberty Sun was carrying food aid near the coast of Somalia when it was attacked. An email from one of the crew members to his mother detailed the incident. “We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets, also bullets,” the email from 26-year-old Thomas Urbik read, reports The Associated Press. Read the rest.

Nigerian Muslims Arrested After Attacking Easter Parade A parade on Easter Monday turned violent when Muslim youths and Christians clashed, resulting in 120 people being arrested, police say. Churches were also set ablaze, and Christians were attacked in the towns of Gwada and Minna, making it necessary for police to enter the town to restore order, reports the BBC. Many of the injured had to be rushed to the hospital. While the west African nation is closely divided between Christians and Muslims, the two groups usually coexist peacefully. There are times, though, when the groups have violent clashes, more often than not due to a “competition for resources” and not religious intolerance reports the BBC.

Two African Nations See Meningitis Outbreak
A meningitis outbreak in Niger and Nigeria has killed more than 200 people just in the last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Nigeria’s WHO spokesman, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, told CNN that the epidemic started in January and that the spread of the disease is highest during the country’s dry season, which ends in May. During the first three months of the year, the nations have seen almost 25,000 suspected meningitis cases and more than 1,500 deaths, reports the health organization. Other African nations, however, have seen less than 50 cases a week on average, reports CNN . Since the Niger and Nigeria are experiencing a lack of vaccines, health officials have turned to “effective prevention,” where they’ll just vaccinate those who are in and around regions experiencing an outbreak, Soyinka said. Meningitis is a condition where the membranes that protect the brain and spinal cord are inflamed. The inflammation could be caused by viruses or bacteria. This kind of meningitis, Neisseria meningitidis, is very dangerous because of its ability to transform into an epidemic.  

Rape and Incest Case Stuns Colombians

The case involving Colombian Arcebio Alvarez, a 59-year-old man accused of raping his daughter several times and having eight children with her, has shocked the South American nation. Alvarez, whom local media refer to as the “monster of Mariquita” is so hated, he needs protection from the army and police for his court appearance, reports the BBC. He denies any wrongdoing, and in fact, claims his daughter was adopted. “We agreed to have a romantic relationship because we really loved each other,” he told the court. Read the rest.