DAMATURU, Nigeria — Suspected Islamic militants killed dozens of students in a pre-dawn attack Tuesday on a northeast Nigerian college, survivors said, setting ablaze a locked hostel and shooting and slitting the throats of those who escaped through windows. Some were burned alive.
Adamu Garba said he and other teachers who ran away through the bush estimate 40 students died in the assault that began around 2 a.m. Tuesday at the Federal Government College at Buni Yadi. It is a co-ed school about 70 kilometres south of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and difficult to communicate with because extremists last year destroyed the cellphone tower there.
Soldiers still are gathering corpses so he could not give an exact number of dead, said military spokesman Capt. Eli Lazarus.
Garba, who teaches at a secondary school attached to the college, said the attackers first set ablaze the college administrative block, then moved to the hostels, where they locked students in and started firebombing the buildings.
At one hostel, he said, “students were trying to climb out of the windows and they were slaughtered like sheep by the terrorists who slit their throats. Others who ran were gunned down.” He said students who could not escape were burned alive.
Another version of the story
ABUJA, Nigeria — Suspected
Islamist militants attacked a school Tuesday and killed 43 people in
northeastern Nigeria, local officials and hospital sources said.
More than 50 gunmen thought to belong to the Boko Haram group stormed the school in Buni Yadi in Yobe state in the early morning, a member of the school committee said.
The attackers kicked open the doors of buildings where students were sleeping. They slit the throats of many of them, avoiding the use of firearms in order not to attract the attention of security personnel manning a checkpoint nearby.
The attackers also abducted some of the students before setting school buildings on fire and escaping.
"Some of the students were burned beyond recognition," state police commissioner Sanusi Rufai said.
Sources at a hospital in Yobe capital Damaturu confirmed that 43 bodies had been deposited in the morgue. It was not clear how many of them were students and staff.
Boko Haram, whose name means Western Education Is Sinful, has frequently attacked schools, including several in Yobe state.
The group has been active in the Muslim north of the West African country, carrying out attacks aimed primarily at Christians.
Since 2009, more than 1,500 people have been killed in the violence.
More than 50 gunmen thought to belong to the Boko Haram group stormed the school in Buni Yadi in Yobe state in the early morning, a member of the school committee said.
The attackers kicked open the doors of buildings where students were sleeping. They slit the throats of many of them, avoiding the use of firearms in order not to attract the attention of security personnel manning a checkpoint nearby.
The attackers also abducted some of the students before setting school buildings on fire and escaping.
"Some of the students were burned beyond recognition," state police commissioner Sanusi Rufai said.
Sources at a hospital in Yobe capital Damaturu confirmed that 43 bodies had been deposited in the morgue. It was not clear how many of them were students and staff.
Boko Haram, whose name means Western Education Is Sinful, has frequently attacked schools, including several in Yobe state.
The group has been active in the Muslim north of the West African country, carrying out attacks aimed primarily at Christians.
Since 2009, more than 1,500 people have been killed in the violence.
Nigerian Students Slaughtered Like Sheep In Damaturu Federal Government College
![Nigerian Students Slaughtered Like Sheep In Damaturu Federal Government College]()
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014
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