The death toll from a Sunday attack by Boko Haram gunmen, who opened fire in a college dormitory in Yobe as the students slept, has risen to at least 40, a hospital source told AFP.
?We now have 40 bodies brought to the morgue from the attack,” and all are believed to have been students of the College of Agriculture in Gujba, said the official from the Damaturu Specialist Hospital, who requested anonymity.
This is the latest in a string of attacks by the sect on schools in the area. In July the national and indeed the whole world was mortified when suspected Boko Haram sect members killed 41 students and a teacher at Government Secondary School, Mamudo.
Reacting then, the United Nation’s children’s fund (UNICEF) called for everyone to condemn the attack, noting that by their count 48 students and seven teachers had been killed since June 16, when Boko Haram said they would target youths.
“We have established that the youth in Borno and Yobe states are now against our course,” Boko Haram spokesman, Abu Zinnira, said in a statement ahead of the sect?s change in modus operandi.
“They have connived with security operatives and are actively supporting the government of Nigeria in its war against us. We have also resolved to fight back.”
