Posts
KANO, NIGERIA – Boko Haram were suspected
of killing nearly 50 pupils Monday in a
suicide bombing in northeast Nigeria, in
one of the worst attacks against schools
teaching a so-called Western curriculum.
The explosion at the all-boys school in
Potiskum is the latest in a series of
atrocities against schoolchildren in the
state of Yobe, and the second suicide attack
in the town in eight days.
The massacre came just a day after the
release of a new Boko Haram video in
which the group’s leader, Abubakar
Shekau, again rejected Nigerian
government claims of a cease-fire and
peace talks.
Students at the Government Comprehensive
Senior Science Secondary School in
Potiskum were waiting to hear the
principal’s daily address when the
explosion happened at 7:50 a.m.
“There was an explosion detonated by a
suicide bomber. We have 47 dead and 79
injured,” national police spokesman
Emmanuel Ojukwu said, adding that Boko
Haram was believed responsible.
A teacher at the school, who asked not be
identified, called the blast “thunderous,”
while a local described the horror of the
aftermath.
Adamu Alkassim said the scene was a mass
of abandoned footwear, blood and flesh, as
the victims were taken to General Hospital,
just 100 meters away.
One rescue worker involved in evacuating
the students from the school said the
wounded had “various degrees of injuries.”
The victims are thought to be in their teens.
Boko Haram, which wants to create a
hard-line Islamic state in northern Nigeria,
has previously carried out deadly attacks
on schools teaching a so-called Western
curriculum since 2009.
In February, gunmen killed at least 40
students after throwing explosives into the
dormitory of a government boarding school
in Buni Yadi, also in Yobe state.
In July last year, 42 students were killed
when Boko Haram stormed dormitories in
a gun and bomb attack on a government
boarding school in the village of Mamudo,
near Potiskum.
Boko Haram’s most high-profile attack on
a school came in April, when fighters
kidnapped 276 girls from the town of
Chibok in Borno state, also in northeast
Nigeria.
More than six months later, 219 of the
girls are still being held.
Potiskum, the commercial hub of Yobe
state, has been repeatedly targeted by
deadly attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
Last Monday, at least 15 people were killed
in a suicide bombing on a Shiite religious
ceremony in the city.
On Wednesday, 16 men arrested by the
military on suspicion of links to Boko
Haram were found dead with bullet
wounds just hours later.
Yobe is one of three northeastern states
that has been under a state of emergency
since May last year to try to quell the
bloody insurgency.
But violence has continued unabated and
Boko Haram has seized at least two dozen
towns and villages in recent months,
raising doubts about the government’s
ability to control the region.
Boko Haram fighters were seen in a new
video on Sunday parading a tank in an
unidentified town that they apparently
now control and Shekau preaching to
locals.
The message in the 44-minute video
appeared to be aimed at reinforcing
Shekau’s claim that he has created a
caliphate within Nigeria.
Shekau, who has previously expressed
solidarity with other jihadi groups and
leaders, seemed to associate territory under
his control with a wider, global caliphate.
But he does not submit to the authority of
any other leader.
No comments