Nearly 50 students killed at Nigerian school teaching 'western curriculum' after suicide bomber in uniform enters assembly
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| BOKO HARAM |
Bomb: At least 48 teenagers died,
and 79 were injured, after a suicide bomber dressed in school uniform detonated
during morning assembly in an act of terrorism blamed on Boko Haram (pictured)
A terrorist attack on an all-boys school in northen
Nigeria killed 48 students and injured 79 after a suicide bomber detonated
during morning assembly.
The perpetrator was dressed in a
school uniform, and entered the schoolyard in Potiskum, Yobe state, on Monday
morning before carrying out the attack among the students.
Local police believe Boko Haram is
responsible for the attack on the secondary school, which follows a 'western
curriculum'.
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 ceasefire 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, just before 8am.
'There was an explosion detonated by
a suicide bomber,' national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said, adding that
Boko Haram was believed responsible.
'So far, the number of the dead is
48, while 79 are injured. I counted the bodies, mostly students and a few
teachers,' a nurse at Potiskum General Hospital said.
'A teacher who survived the blast
with minor injury said the bomber dressed like a student and was also on the
assembly ground with the students,' she said, asking to remain anonymous.
The massacre came just a day after
the release of a new Boko Haram video in which the group's leader, Abubakar
Shekau, pictured, again rejected Nigerian government claims of a ceasefire and
peace talks
Adamu Alkassim said the scene was a
mass of abandoned footwear, blood and flesh, as the victims were taken to the
Potiskum General Hospital, just 330ft away.
Mariam Ibrahim, a teacher at the
Government Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School said the bomb went off
as she was arriving and students were at morning assembly.
Potiskum resident Aliyu Abubakar
said he heard the explosion when he was dropping off his two sons at a nearby
Islamic college. 'One of my sons fell down, I came out dragged him in and we
drove off back home,' he said.
A second teacher, asking to remain
anonymous, said, 'There are some (others) that are critically injured and I am
sure the death toll will rise.'
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
hardline 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.
The blast took place at Government
Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum, Yobe
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 Shia 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.
PLS WHAT DO YOU THINK CAN BE DONE TO
CURB THE ONGOING KILLINGS? YOUR COMMENT WILL BE APPRECIATED
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