Nigeria's president threatens rebels amid rising violence in southeast

FILE PHOTO: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks during a news conference during a visiit to Pretoria, South Africa, October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

ABUJA (Reuters) - People who promote insurrection in Nigeria face a "rude shock", its president warned on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a fierce crackdown on rising violence in the southeast that has included arson attacks on police station and electoral offices.

Security forces are already grappling with criminal gangs in the northwest who carry out mass kidnappings for ransom, a decade-old Islamist insurgency in the northeast, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea off Nigeria's southern coast.