43 students killed in Yobe school attack by Boko Haram
(Nigeria) Suspected Boko Haram Islamists killed 43 people on
Tuesday when they attacked girls secondary school students as they slept in the
latest school massacre to hit Nigeria's troubled northeast.
The raid at 2 a.m., (0100 GMT) targeted the Federal
Government College in the town of Buni Yadi in Yobe State and bore the
hallmarks of a similar attack last September in which 40 died.
The attackers reportedly hurled explosives into student
residential buildings, sprayed gunfire into rooms and hacked a number students
to death.
A senior medical source at the Sani Abacha Specialist
Hospital in Yobe's capital Damaturu said the gunmen only targeted male students
and that female students were "spared".
"So far, 43 bodies have been brought (from the college)
and are lying at the morgue," said the source, who requested anonymity as
he was not authorised to discuss death tolls.
Yobe has been one of the hardest areas in Boko Haram's
four-and-half year Islamist uprising, which has killed thousands of people.
The name Boko Haram means "Western Education is
forbidden."
The group has been blamed for waves of school attacks,
especially in Yobe, where scores of students have been slaughtered in the last
year.
The state's police chief, Sanusi Rufai, who confirmed the
attack and had given an earlier death toll of 29, was headed to Buni Yadi,
roughly 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Damaturu, with Governor Ibrahim Geidam to
assess the damage.
- Convoy of ambulances -
Damaturu resident Babagoni Musa told AFP that four
ambulances carrying dead bodies drove past his shop, which falls on the road
from Buni Yadi.
"They had tree branches on them which is a sign used
here to signify a corpse is in a vehicle," he said.
People whose relatives were studying at the college had
surrounded the morgue and were desperately seeking information about those
killed, forcing the military take control of the building to restore calm, the
hospital source said.
Yobe is one of three northeastern states which was placed
under emergency rule in May last year when the military launced a massive
operation to crush the Boko Haram uprising.
At least 40 students were killed in September at an
agriculture training college in Yobe after Boko Haram gunmen stormed a series
of dorms in the middle of the night and sprayed gunfire on sleeping students.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in the northeast
since the emergency measures were imposed, despite the enhanced military
presence.
Boko Haram, declared a terrorist organisation by Nigeria and
the United States, has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in
Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.
Geidam and the governor of neighbouring Borno state, Kashim
Shettima, have fiercely criticised the military's record in combatting Boko
Haram, insisting that more resources were needed to defeat the emboldened and
increasingly well-armed insurgents.
- Pressure mounts on Jonathan -
In a video sent to AFP last week, Boko Haram's purported
leader, Abubakar Shekau, said he would continue his relentless campaign of
violence on anyone who supports democracy or so-called Western values.
Shekau, deemed a global terrorist by the United States, also
threatened to widen the insurgency outside the group's northeastern stronghold
with attacks in the oil-producing, southern Niger Delta region.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer and an Islamist attack
in the country's key economic region would pile further pressure on President
Goodluck Jonathan, who has faced scathing criticism over his handling of the
Boko Haram crisis.
Jonathan on Monday defended his government's record in
tackling the militants, telling reporters that "no effort will be
spared" to protect civilians and their property.
He renewed his call to Boko Haram to lay down their arms and
engage in talks to address their grievances.
Comments
Post a Comment