Militant gunmen attack Nigerian school and kill dozens of students
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The secondary school in Mamudo was attacked last year Picture:
A school in Nigeria has been attacked by gunmen and dozens of students have been killed.
The attackers stormed the boarding school at night and burned it to the ground, said.
They are suspected to be from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram 鶹APP whose name means 鶹APPWestern education is sinful鶹APP.
Initial reports put the death toll at 29 鶹APP but sources later said 43 had died. Other reports claimed it could be as high as 59.
All of the dead were boys, some of whom are believed to have died in the fire. No girls at the Federal Government College of Buni Yadi were harmed in the attack, according to Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai on February 25.
He said: 鶹APPSome of the students鶹APP bodies were burned to ashes.鶹APP
that the students were fired upon as they slept in a dormitory.
The secondary school is in Yobe state, near the state鶹APPs capital city of Damaturu. A military spokesman for Yobe state, Captain Lazarus Eli, confirmed the attack and said: 鶹APPOur men are down there in pursuit of the killers.鶹APP
Boko Haram has targeted schools before. A similar attack in June in the village of Mamudo left 22 students dead.
Map showing the Yobe region. Source: Nigerian website
Gordon Brown, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, said: 鶹APPThe world will not accept this continued escalation of violence against the right of children to education and will fight it.
鶹APPIn May there will be a summit in Abuja bringing together funders from all over the world who will pledge additional support to Nigeria鶹APPs plan to get 10million children to school. But they will expect the Nigerian government and the states to do more to prevent violence and to ensure resources are available.鶹APP
More than 10million children in Nigeria do not go to school and the country has the highest out-of-school population in the world. Children have increasingly become targets for violence 鶹APP simply for wanting to go to school and learn.
Boko Haram also carried out two attacks last week, in which more than 200 people were killed. Militants burned a village to the ground and shot people as they fled for their lives.
Reuters said the failure of the military to protect civilians is fuelling anger in the northeast, the region worst affected by the four- and-a-half-year-old insurgency.
An offensive ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan in May has failed to crush the rebels and triggered reprisals against civilians.
Boko Haram wants an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. Its struggle has killed thousands and made the group the biggest threat to security in Africa鶹APPs top oil-producing nation.
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