Students slaughtered by Boko Haram as they sleep

ISLAMIST TERRORISTS slaughtered 59 pupils in a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight, according to a hospital official and security forces.
The suspected Boko Haram gunmen set fire to dormitories and slit the throats of those trying to escape in the
pre-dawn attack carried out yesterday (Feb 25).
Police commissioner Sanusi Rufai confirmed that "some of the students' bodies were burned to ashes" in the federal government college of Buni Yadi, a secondary school in Yobe state, near the state's capital city of Damaturu.

The suspected militants threw explosives and sprayed rooms with gunfire, and hacked students to death as they attempted to flee.

Bala Ajiya, an official at the Specialist Hospital Damaturu, said the death toll had risen to 59.

He said: “Fresh bodies have been brought in. More bodies were discovered in the bush after the students who had escaped with bullet wounds died from their injuries.”

While female students were spared, Rufai said the school's 24 buildings, including staff quarters, were completely burned to the ground.

Teacher Adamu Garba said he and other colleagues who fled estimate 40 students died in the assault. However, soldiers at the scene say they are unable to give an exact number of dead yet.

Garbu said at one hostel "students were trying to climb out of the windows and they were slaughtered like sheep by the terrorists who slit their throats. Others who ran were gunned down."

President Goodluck Jonathan called the attack "callous and senseless murder… by deranged terrorists and fanatics who have clearly lost all human morality and descended to bestiality".

Boko Haram has been blamed for a number of school attacks in the past, particularly in Yobe, where scores of students have died.

Yobe is one of three northeastern states placed under emergency rule last May when the military launched a major operation to crush the four-and-a-half year Boko Haram uprising.

Despite the increased military presence since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed.

This is the third attack within the last ten days - in one instance the Izghe village was raided and residents were shot as they tried to flee.

The name of the group means "Western education is forbidden". Declared a terrorist organisation by Nigeria and the US, the group is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

The Islamist terrorist group has been blamed for killing 10,000 people since it launched a violent campaign against the state in 2009.

That attack prompted US secretary of state John Kerry to condemn Boko Haram for "unspeakable... acts of terror".

The failure of the military to protect civilians is creating anger in the northeast.

However, Jonathan defended the military's record during a news conference on Monday (Feb 24), stating it had had some successes against Boko Haram.

He confirmed Nigeria was working with Cameroonian authorities to try to prevent militants from mounting attacks in Nigeria and then fleeing over the border.