Death toll rises to 78 in Yobe student attack
State has risen to 78. At least 50 of them were students
who were attacked in the early hours of yesterday morning
as they slept in their hostel. Some were shot, others were
butchered with swords and knives. The gunmen, suspected
to be Boko Haram sect members later moved to houses
around the hostel, killing residents they find. Then they
blocked the Damaturu-Maiduguri road and killed travellers.
So far, 78 bodies have been counted, with many more
people still unaccounted for. A student of the college who
survived the massacre explained what happened...
"They started gathering students into groups outside,
then they opened fire and killed one group and then
moved onto the next group and killed them. It was so
terrible. They came with guns around 1a.m. and went
directly to the male hostel and opened fire on them.
The college is in the bush, so the other students were
running around helplessly as guns went off and some
of them were shot down.”
The gunmen stormed the hostels in two double-cabin pickup
all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, and were dressed in
military camouflage. They attacked 4 male hostels but
avoided the only hostel reserved for girls. Swords and
knives were used to kill at least 30 male students. Some
corpses that were found were without heads while others
had heads hanging to the bodies. Wailing parents and
relatives were at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital
mortuary in Damaturu this morning to identify their loved
ones. This can't continue. This government has to do
something about the situation.
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