Nigeria says armed gangs in north are working with militants

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A top Nigerian official says that armed gangs attacking remote communities in Nigeria’s troubled northwest are now working with extremist rebels who have waged a decade-long insurgency in the country’s northeast. Nigeria’s Minister of Information Lai Mohammed told reporters that the gunmen and the Islamist rebels are in “an unholy handshake.”  It was the first time that an official has confirmed a collaboration that security analysts have warned of. The security crisis is dominated by two groups: bandits many of whom are formerly herdsmen now carrying arms and Islamic extremist rebels of the Boko Haram group and its breakaway faction the Islamic State in West Africa Province.