Islamist gunmen killed at least 29 students and a teacher in the Government Secondary School in the northeast Nigerian state of Yobe on Saturday.
“Some of the pupils were burned alive in the latest school attack blamed on a radical terror group, survivors said.
Parents screamed in anguish as they tried to identify the charred and gunshot victims.
Farmer Malam Abdullahi found the bodies of two of his sons, a 10-year-old shot in the back as he apparently tried to run away, and a 12-year-old shot in the chest.” – Usatoday.com
“The attack was the deadliest of at least three on schools since the military launched an offensive in May to try to crush Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, whose nickname translates as “Western education is sinful” in the northern Hausa language.
The attackers set fire to buildings and shot pupils as they tried to flee, the source told Reuters by email. A hospital was treating several of the students for burns, he added.” – reuters.com
“The BBC’s Will Ross, in Lagos, says this area has frequently been attacked by the Boko Haram militant group.
More than 600 people were believed to have been killed in 2012 by the group, which is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north.” – BBC
In an annual report to the U.S. Congress, the State Department said last month that counterterrorism efforts by U.S., European, and regional forces have “done much to roll back and contain the threat” of terrorism in Africa over the past year.
But it said a series of revolutions, ethnic rebellions and military coups in the region have “complicated the terrorism picture” and presented militant groups with new opportunities to operate in the region. Boko Haram has definitely seized upon this opportunity and has emerged as a terrorizing force in northeast Nigeria.
