Nigerian School Attack: Islamist Militants Burn Students To Death

A Nigerian school attack staged Tuesday by the Islamist group Boko Haram resulted to the death of 59 students in Yobe state in Nigeria, Reuters reports.

Some of the victims were reported to have been burned alive by the attackers.

The Nigerian school attack happened in the Federal Government College of Buni Yadi. All of the school attack victims that have been confirmed so far were boys.

Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said that some of the bodies recovered at the scene of the school attack were burned to ashes.

Earlier reports said that the death toll of the Nigerian attack was 29, but as more bodies were confirmed by Specialist Hospital Damaturu, the body count was raised to 59.

Some of the victims who barely escaped the onslaught of the school attack died later on bullet wounds, local officials confirmed.

All of the school’s 24 buildings were burned to the ground, officials told Reuters.

The country’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, said in a statement that the Nigerian school attack was a “callous and senseless murder.” He called the attackers “deranged terrorists and fanatics who have clearly lost all human morality and descended to bestiality.”

Boko Haram, or “Western Education is Sinful” in English, is an Islamist group that has been active in the northern parts of Nigeria for years. The group was founded by sect leader Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 and has been responsible for multiple school attacks and thousands of deaths over the years since their founding. Reuters recounts a similar school attack of the Boko Haram in Mamudo village in June, leaving 22 students dead.

The group has also claimed 300 deaths this month including 100 from two attacks conducted just last week.

The Inquisitr also reported January that the Boko Haram killed 12 people at a Christian wedding in Nigeria after two members pretended to be guests of the event.

President Jonathan previously launched an attack last May on the Boko Haram but failed to defeat the militants. The attack prompted the Boko Haram to take vengeance on neighboring civilians.

Citizens of Northeastern Nigeria are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the military’s lack of effort towards peace and security in the terror-stricken areas.

Captain Lazarus Eli of the Nigerian military said that the country’s armed forces are “down there in pursuit of the killers.” He declined to give more information on the military activities.

The Nigerian school attack angered many leaders outside the country. US Secretary of State John Kerry described the attack as “unspeakable…acts of terror”

[photo credit: AK Rockefeller via photopin cc]