NIGERIAN officials cut communication lines in multiple parts of Katsina state as a crackdown on banditry in the northwest of the country spreads. Katsina state security adviser Ibrahim Ahmed told Reuters by phone that the government directed a communications blackout in 13 local government areas to hinder criminality in the region. The affected areas border Zamfara and Kaduna states. Officials in the former state shut down communications networks earlier this week to help armed forces tackle armed gangs of kidnappers terrorising the area. Since that operation began, gunmen kidnapped 20 people in Sokoto state in what a local government source…