BOKO HARAM Islamic terrorists, whose name means ”Western education is a sin” attacked a boarding school before dawn Saturday, dousing a dormitory in fuel and lighting it ablaze as students slept, survivors said. At least 30 people were killed in the deadliest attack yet on schools in Nigeria’s embattled northeast. Authorities blamed the violence on Boko Haram militants who have been behind a series of recent attacks on schools in the region, including one in which gunmen opened fire on children taking exams in a classroom. “We were sleeping when we heard gunshots. When I woke up, someone was pointing a gun at me,” Musa Hassan, 15, told The Associated Press of the assault on Government Secondary School in Mamudo village in Yobe state. He put his arm up in defense, and suffered a gunshot that blew off all four fingers on his right hand, the one he uses to write. His life was spared when the militants moved on after shooting him. Hassan recalled how the gunmen came armed with jerry cans of fuel that they used to torch the school’s administrative block and one of the dormitories. “They burned the children alive,” he said, the horror showing in his wide eyes. He and teachers at the morgue said dozens of children from the 1,200-student school escaped into the bush but have not been seen since. On Saturday, at the morgue of Potiskum General Hospital, a few miles (kilometers) from the scene of the attack, parents screamed in anguish as they attempted to identify the victims, many charred beyond recognition. Some parents do not know if their children survived or died. 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. ”The gunmen are attacking schools and there is no protection for students despite all the soldiers,” he said as he wept over the two corpses. He said he is withdrawing his three remaining sons from another school. Islamic militants from Boko Haram and breakaway groups have killed more than 1,600 civilians in suicide bombings and other attacks since 2010, according to an Associated Press count. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 and deployed thousands of troops to halt the insurgency, acknowledging that militants had taken control of some towns and villages. Nigerian soldiers stand guard at the offices of the state-run Nigerian Television Authority in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Boko Haram, the radical group that once attacked only government institutions and security forces, is increasingly targeting civilians Nigerian soldiers stand guard at the offices of the state-run Nigerian Television Authority in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Boko Haram, the radical group that once attacked only government institutions and security forces, is increasingly targeting civilians. Saturday’s attack killed 29 students and English teacher Mohammed Musa, who was shot in the chest, according to another teacher, Ibrahim Abdu. On Thursday, Boko Haram gunmen went to the home of a primary school headmaster and gunned down his entire family. Witnesses said they attacked at 7 a.m. as the owner of the private Godiya Nursery and Primary School was preparing to leave his home in the town of Biu, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Maiduguri. Resident Anjikwi Bala told the AP that Hassan Godiya, his wife and four children all were killed. He said the assassins, suspected Boko Haram fighters, got away. A day later, June 17, extremists fired on students sitting at their desks as they were writing exams in Maiduguri, killing at least nine pupils. Borno state officials say more than 20,000 people have fled to Cameroon in recent weeks amid the violence.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 01:00:36 +0000
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