The piracy targeting the coast of West Africa takes root in the oil-slicked creeks of Nigeria's southern delta, where militants steal millions of dollars of crude with the apparent help of security agencies, experts said Saturday.

Nigeria's military says at least seven people have been killed in a shootout between soldiers and Islamic extremists in the country's northeast.

Nigeria's main militant group said on Sunday they killed more than 15 security forces during a fierce gunfight at Azuzama area of southern Bayelsa State the previous day.

Authorities say 18 people have been killed in a head-on collision between two buses in central Nigeria.

Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani was just 10 years old when she first read Chinua Achebe's groundbreaking novel "Things Fall Apart."

The Nigerian federal government has said it is doing everything possible to ensure that the eight foreign hostages held by the militant group in the Northern part of the country are released without any harm.

Nigeria will send a high-power delegation to attend the inauguration of newly elected Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican City on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the presidency on Saturday.

Gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram militant sect attacked a prison in the northeastern Nigeria, killing a resident and setting free hundreds of inmates, a police source told Xinhua on Friday.

Nigeria's police in northwest Kano State on Tuesday said gunmen riding on motorcycles attacked a primary school in the metropolis, injuring at least three teachers.

Eight people have been killed in northeastern Nigeria in an attack by the Boko Haram militant group.

At least five people have been killed and seven others injured after unknown gunmen opened fire on them in Nigeria.

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has denied any involvement in the abduction of seven French tourists in northern Cameroon.

At least three civilians have been killed and many others injured in two separate bomb explosions in Nigeria.

The Nigerian government says it is ready to consider a recent ceasefire proposal by the Boko Haram sect, an extremist group which has waged a campaign of terror in northern Nigeria for almost four years.

Authorities say at least five police officers have been killed in separate attacks in northern Nigeria.

Five Indian sailors who had been abducted by armed assailants off the coast of Nigeria following an attack on their ship, have been released, the vessel's operating company says.

At least 23 people have been killed in northern Nigeria by gunmen targeting "anti-islamic gamblers" and "forbidden meat traders".

There are speculations that due to lack of adequate training and discipline, the over 1,200 Nigeria troops would not be directly involved in combat operations to oust the militiamen from the northern region of Mali.

A group of 30 armed men have attacked two neighboring villages in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara, shooting or hacking to death about 10 people, security officials say.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. paid about $187,000 to free four abducted South Korean workers and their local colleague, a lucrative ransom showing the continuing allure of kidnapping in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, police said Friday.