Twenty-nine students and a teacher have been killed by suspected Islamist insurgents in Nigeria’s Yobe state, as anxious parents rushed to the spot to identify their burnt and shot children.
Most of the victims were burnt alive by the assailants in yesterday’s attack in a boarding school in Potiskum area.
Some of the parents had two or more children killed in the incident while the survivors remained in great shock.
Military spokesperson Eli Lazarus said 20 pupils and a teacher had died but eyewitnesses maintained that 29 students and a teacher were killed.
Lazarus said no arrests have been made so far but search operations have commenced.
Survivors were treated for burns and gunshot wounds at a nearby hospital.
Residents and parents lamented that despite the declaration of state of emergency in the state, military protection was not provided for students of Government Secondary School, Mamudo where the school was located.
Members of radical Islamic sect Boko Haram have been carrying out killings in northern Nigeria since 2009 forcing the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to declare state of emergency in three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa with massive deployment of soldiers to the area.
However, the sect which says it abhors Western education manages to carry out surprise attacks from time to time in the northern parts of the oil-rich African country.