Suspected militants throw explosives, spray rooms with gunfire and hack some students to death in raid on a school.

16:30, UK, Tuesday 25 February 2014

A soldier examines a wall riddled with bullets, from an attack by Boko Haram Militants

Dozens of Nigerian secondary school pupils have been killed by suspected Boko Haram Islamists as they slept in student housing.

In the attack on the Federal Government College in the town of Buni Yadi in Yobe state, explosives were thrown into accommodation and rooms sprayed with gunfire.

A worker at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in the state capital, Damaturu, said the gunmen targeted male students and female students were "spared".


A number of students were reportedly hacked to death.

Adamu Garba said he and other teachers who fled estimate 40 students died in the assault. Soldiers at the scene say they are unable to give an exact number of dead yet.


Students who could not escape were burned alive, he added.

The state governor's spokesman said soldiers guarding a checkpoint near the school mysteriously withdrew hours before the attack.

Relatives of those studying at the college surrounded the morgue desperate for information about those killed, which forced the military to take control of the building to restore calm.

The slaughter bore the hallmarks of an attack last September in which 40 people were killed. In that attack, Boko Haram gunmen stormed a series of dormitories and sprayed gunfire on sleeping students at an agriculture training college.

Boko Haram has been blamed for a number of school attacks, particularly in Yobe, where scores of students have died.


The name of the group means "Western education is forbidden". Declared a terrorist organisation by Nigeria and the US, the group is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Yobe is one of three northeastern states placed under emergency rule last May when the military launched a massive operation to crush the four-and-a-half year Boko Haram uprising.

Despite the increased military presence since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed.

Boko Haram's purported leader said last week he would continue the campaign of violence on anyone who supports democracy or so-called Western values.

In a video, Abubakar Shekau also threatened to expand the insurgency outside of its northeastern stronghold with attacks in the oil-producing Niger Delta region in the south.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who has faced criticism of his handling of Boko Haram, defended his government’s record in tackling the militants on Monday.

He said "no effort will be spared" to protect civilians and their property, and renewed calls to Boko Haram to lay down their arms and take part in talks.


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