Suspected Islamist militants opened
fire on a school in Maiduguri on Tuesday [Jun 18], killing nine students,
witnesses and a medical worker said. This was the second deadly attack on
schools in three days.
An eyewitness, Ibrahim Mohammed,
said he was taking exams in a classroom at Ansarudeen School when gunmen
stormed the building and opened fire at random.
“I saw five students sitting for the
exams killed on the spot. Four others were killed as they were entering the
school premises,” he explained on the telephone, still shaking with fear.
In another attack on Monday,
suspected extremists gunned down a group of fisherman on a river bank in Alau,
located 20 kilometers outside Maiduguri.
It was believed that 13 fishermen
were killed during the attack.
Most of the victims were relatives
of people who have been arresting members of a radical Islamic sect known as
Boko Haram.
“They said, ‘Your children brought
this fate upon you; they are busy catching our members and handing them to
soldiers to be killed’,” recalled one eyewitness, who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“They then shot them dead, and asked
the remaining of us to run for our lives and take the message to the youth
vigilante.”
The military was not immediately
available for comment.
Seven students, two teachers and two
insurgents were killed when suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a school in
Damaturu on Sunday.
The two attacks have raised fears
that a month-long offensive by government troops has merely pushed militants
into hiding, from where they can still launch devastating operations.
In a separate attack, armed bandits
attacked Kizera village in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state on Thursday,
killing at least 32 people, local police chief Usman Gwary said.
