In news from Nigeria, at least 178 people died Friday in a coordinated series of bombings and shootings in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city. The militant Islamic group Boko Haram claimed responsibility. Earlier this month, three of Nigeria’s most famous writers—Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and J.P. Clark—released a statement warning that the country could be descending into civil war. Nigeria’s 160 million people are roughly divided between a mostly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.