Students, Teachers Flee Boarding Schools in North East Nigeria
Students in northeast Nigeria have fled boarding house after an attack by terrorist group Boko Haram in which 59 students
were shot and hacked to death while school buildings were razed.
Students refused to stay overnight in their schools and colleges in
the wake of the attack on the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi,
Yobe state on Tuesday.
“Most students of boarding secondary schools have vacated
their hostels and moved back to their homes after news of the Buni Yadi
attack.
They went to school today (Wednesday) but returned after
classes ended because they are too afraid to sleep in the school for
fear of a Boko Haram attack,” Yunusa Ahmed, who lives in the state capital Damaturu said.
Ahmed’s son is currently studying at the city’s Government Secondary
School but has now moved back home along with two classmates.
The Federal Government College, a girls’ school in Yobe state’s
commercial hub Potiskum, was shut indefinitely after concerned parents
took their daughters home, fearing it could be hit next, a teacher at
the school said.
“The school management sought approval from higher
authorities for the closure of the school because of the massive
withdrawal of students by parents, despite assurances by the school
management,” said the teacher, who asked not to be identified.
Students have also fled at least two other boarding schools in the town, say locals.
The fear of renewed violence was heightened by claims that the
attackers of Buni Yadi were spotted in a nearby village afterwards,
Kabir added.
“The attacks on secondary schools are a clear warning to
us in the university because if the attackers could murder secondary
school children one can only imagine what they would do if they attack a
university,” said student Bashir Sani.
Many are staying with friends in the city. Only a few with nowhere else to go still sleep at the college, he said.
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