Boko Haram Slaughters 29 Pupils in Yobe Boarding School Last Night - Many Burnt to Ashes

(Reuters) - Gunmen from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school overnight, killing 29 pupils, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground, police and the military said on Tuesday.

"Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes," said police commissioner Sanusi Rufai.

Scores of students feared dead as Boko Haram attacks girls college in Yobe

on February 25, 2014 / in News 2:07 pm / Comments

BY NDAHI MARAMA, MAIDUGURI
Several students and staff of Federal Government Girls College (FGGC) in Buni Yadi, the headquarters of Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe state were feared dead while others being abducted by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram terrorists.

The gunmen also set ablaze many structures in the school, the council’s secretariat complex, High Court among other goverment and private establishments including telecommunication masts.

Buni Yadi is about 65 kilometres drive to Damaturu, the state capital, while Gujba town which witnessed a deadly attacks in College of Agriculture last year where over 40 students were killed is located south and about 35 kilometres drive to the state capital.

Sources told our Correspondent that the gunmen numbering over 50 invaded the school in the early hours of Tuesday (Morning) at about 1:30am where they had a field-day without being confronted by the security agencies.

The sources added that “the attack is coming barely few hours after the security agencies guarding the school at one of the checkpoints close to the college’s main gate withdrew their services from the area on Tuesday. This development caused a lot of casualty on the students and staff as over 20 people were killed”. The source said.

Death toll from Yobe girls college massacre rises to 43

KANO (AFP) – The death toll from a school massacre in Yobe by suspected Boko Haram Islamists on Tuesday has risen to 43, a hospital source in the troubled northeastern Yobe state said.

“Ambulances have been bringing in bodies from Federal Government College in (the town of Buni Yadi,” a senior medical source at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Yobe’s capital Damaturu told AFP. “So far 43 bodies have been brought and are lying at the morgue,” he said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss death tolls.

Yobe’s police chief Sanusi Rufai told AFP that 29 people were killed but it was not immediately clear if all of the dead were students.

Rufai said he was en route to Buni Yadi with Yobe’s covernor Ibrahim Geidam to assess the extent of the damage.

Yobe is one of three northeastern states which was placed under emergency rule in May last year when the military launced a massive operation to crush the Boko Haram uprising.

At least 40 students were killed in September at an agriculture training college in Yobe after Boko Haram gunmen stormed a series of dorms in the middle of the night and sprayed gunfire on sleeping students.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the northeast since the emergency measures were imposed, despite the enhanced military presence.

Boko Haram, declared a terrorist organisation by Nigeria and the United States, has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.

Geidam and the governor of neighbouring Borno state, Kashim Shettima, have fiercely criticised the military’s record in combatting Boko Haram, insisting that more resources were needed to defeat the emboldened and increasingly well-armed insurgents.

In a video sent to AFP last week, Boko Haram’s purported leader, Abubakar Shekau, said he would continue his relentless campaign of violence on anyone who supports democracy or so-called Western values.

Shekau, declared a global terrorist by the United States, also threated to widen the insurgency outside the group’s northeastern stronghold with attacks in the oil-producing, southern Niger Delta region.

Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer and an Islamist attack in the country’s key economic region would pile further pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan, who has faced scathing criticism over his handling of the Boko Haram crisis.

more..

Last night, Boko Haram militants stormed a boarding school in Damaturu, Yobe State, killing 29 students.

According to the international news agency Reuters, the militants burnt the school to the ground, and many victims died in flames.

The police and military have confirmed the incident.

"Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes," said police commissioner Sanusi Rufai.

More details soon.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has sealed its northern border with Cameroon in an effort to shut out terrorists using its neighbour as a launchpad for attacks.

The closure extends from Borno State, by Lake Chad, to the southern end of Adamawa State, around halfway along Nigeria’s 1,500-mile border with Cameroon.

A statement issued by the Commandant 23 Armoured Brigade, Brigadier-General Rogers Ibe Nicholas said that the closure is meant to effectively curtail the activities of the insurgents.

Borno and Adamawa states are covered by a State of Emergency that President Goodluck Jonathan declared last May as part of an offensive meant to crush the Boko Haram sect.

“To effectively curtail the activities of the insurgents, the Cameroon border in the northeast has been closed indefinitely,” Brigadier-General Rogers Ibe Nicholas said in a statement.

The Islamists, whose struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and made them the biggest threat to security in Africa’s top oil producer, are currently based in the hilly Gwoza area next to Cameroon.

Nigerian security officials say they often launch deadly attacks then flee over the border to avoid being pursued.

They killed more than 200 people in two attacks last week on villages, prompting renewed criticisms that military action has failed to neutralize them.

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