Nigeria horror: Boko Haram massacre dozens of students sleeping in dormitories

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha Lagos: The militant outfit Boko Haram staged yet another brutal show of terror when dozens of them attacked a boarding school in Nigeria`s Yobe state after midnight, shooting and burning to death at least 43 students, who were asleep in their dormitories, unmindful of the onslaught.

Besides killing 43 students, they also abducted 16 girls, reports from Nigeria said. According to the BBC, the militants told the girls to shun western education and instead get married. The school targeted by the militants - the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi – is a secondary boarding school located near Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state. The militants numbering 50, went on an unabated killing spree, shooting at students and burning classrooms and dormitories, and also not sparing the government and private establishment, reducing them to ashes. The militants suffered no resistance as there were no security officials to combat them. According to the local Nigerian media reports, the attack took place within 24 hours of withdrawing the soldiers manning the check point close to the school. Just hours before the attack, the “soldiers stationed close to the school were redeployed without any cogent reason,” a Nigerian news website the Vanguard quoted the Yobe State`s Governor’s media aide, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego as saying. The Governor of the Yobe state, Ibrahim Gaidam himself regretted the lack of security men near the school at the time of the attack. "It is unfortunate that up to five hours when this massacre took place, there were no security agents around to stop or contain the situation," he said in a statement, according to the BBC. Expressing his regret at the massacre, President Goodluck Jonathan paid condolences to the families of the murdered students and condemned the "heinous, brutal and mindless killing of the guiltless students by deranged terrorists and fanatics who have clearly lost all human morality and descended to bestiality". Meanwhile, the Nigerian military in a statement assured the citizens that they will pursue the attackers and do their best to ensure their safety. Similar attacks have been staged by the Boko Haram earlir and this is the fourth ssuch attack in last months. Last year in September, the militant outfit had targeted the College of Agriculture in Gujba town in a similar midnight raid, killing 40 students while they were asleep. Boko Haram, which means western education is sin, is an extremist group that plans to establish a strict Sharia establishment in the country.