Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attack Nigeria school
(Nigeria) Suspected Boko Haram Islamists on Tuesday opened fire on
secondary school students as they slept in a dormitory in Nigeria's troubled
northeastern Yobe state, the military said.
Casualty figures from the attack in the town of Buni Yadi,
roughly 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the state capital Damaturu, were not
immediately available but scores of students have been killed in similar
attacks in the state in the last year.
The military spokesman in Yobe, Lazarus Eli, said the raid
occurred at 2:00 am (0100 GMT) at the town's Federal Government College, a
school for students aged 11 to 18.
The gunmen "opened fire on student hostels", Eli
said.
"Details are still sketchy due to lack of telephone
access and it is still not clear how many students were affected in the
attack", he added.
The name Boko Haram means "Western education is
forbidden" and the Islamist rebels have carried out waves of attacks at
schools across the north during their four-and-a-half year insurgency.
At least 40 students were killed in September at an
agriculture training college in the Yobe town of Gujba in September after Boko
Haram gunmen stormed a series of dorms in the middle of the night and sprayed
gunfire on sleeping students.
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.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in the region 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.
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