Nigeria: New Boko Haram Attacks Kills 29 Students As The Sleep

by Benson Agoha

* Map of Nigeria, showing Yobe State, one of the three states in Nigeria's Northeast which are under regular assaults from Boko Haram.

A new wave of attacks on the Federal Govt College, Yobe, has claimed the lives of 29 students, emerging reports say.

Reports from Nigeria say the gunmen are suspected to be members of the outlawed terror group, Boko Haram.

The gunmen struck early on Tuesday as the students slept in a dormitory and opened fire, killing several on the spot.

Today's attack on the town of Buni Yadi, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Damaturu, the state capital, follows a similar attacks on students in Yobe State, last year.

Details are still emerging and casualty figures may rise as acess to the area is still limited, even by telephone.

Lazarus Eli, Military spokesman in Yobe State 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 said the gunmen struck around 2.00am local time (0100 GMT). The Federal Government College is a secondary school with intakes from teenagers aged between 11 and 18.

Today's attacks adds to an already mounting casualty caused by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram. Last week over 200 people were killed in a similar attack, in addition to about 75 killed between the 26th and 31st of January 2014.

About 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.

All these are done by an outlawed group of militants who despise conventional “Western education" and seek to replace it with Islamic studies.

In its four-and-a-half year insurgency, Boko Haram had carried out several attacks in Nigeria's Northeast.

After last week's attack, during which 200 villgers were killed, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, pointedly told the media, he thought Nigerian Army would not be able to defeat Boko Haram.

* Twitter: @bensonagoha.

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