Dozens of school and college students injured in Boko Haram attack

Previous attack on the secondary school in Potiskum

College and school students were among about 50 people injured in another suspected Boko Haram attack on education in Nigeria today.

Twelve students were reportedly wounded by gunfire and about 45 others were hurt as they fled from the attackers – including some who feared their secondary school was being targeted.

Two attackers arrived at the College of Administrative and Business Studies in Potiskum, Yobe state, at about 8am. Shots were fired into a crowd outside the college and witnesses said one attacker then blew himself up in the car park and a second bomb exploded in the dormitory.

Police said they the surviving gunman is in custody. Student Mustapha Umar told the AFP news agency that a group of students tried to subdue one of the attackers.

He added: “When he ran out of ammunition he detonated the explosives under his robe, killing himself but no one from the crowd.”

The Associated Press reported that students from the neighbouring Government Science Secondary School thought they were being attacked and jumped out of windows and over walls.

The school was the target of a Boko Haram attack last year when more than 40 students were killed when a bomb went off at assembly.

Today’s attack comes days after a major offensive by the Nigerian army into Sambisa Forest, in which about 700 children and women were rescued from Boko Haram camps. None of the missing Chibok schoolgirls appears to be among the groups rescued.

The terrorist group’s hatred of schools and in particular girls’ education has led to a campaign of attacks and abuse. At least 300 schools have been destroyed or severely damaged, scores of students killed and hundreds of students abducted.