RIVAL GANGS CLASH,14 DIE

File picture of rival groups in battle  No fewer than 14 people died in the early hours of Friday when members of two rival gangs faced off in Sime area of Rivers state, south-south Nigeria. A community leader said told AFP that it was a clash between the Icelanders and Greenlanders. "I totally condemn the killing of 14 persons so far killed as a result of the incident. Earlier in the week, two persons were also killed," Bob Uelor Nkue, governor of the Tai local government council, told AFP. Meanwhile, the spokesman for the police command in the state Omoni Nnamdi confirmed the clash but declined to give further details. "I am still awaiting reports on the incident," he said. Jacobson Nbina, a politician with the Peoples Democratic Party, said: "As I speak to you over 20 PDP youths of my community, Sime, have been brutally murdered and several others taken away alive as unknown gunmen invaded my community." Such gangs, known as "cults" in Nigeria, began as university confraternities decades ago before evolving into powerful armed groups that now rule the streets of the destitute region. They are often aligned with political parties, who hire them as protection — and to intimidate their opponents. A candidate from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) beat the PDP candidate in a closely contested senate by-election last December.