Schoolgirls and teachers in north-eastern
Nigeria have escaped an attack on a
boarding
school by Boko Haram jihadists, witnesses
say.
IMAGE SOURCE:
KENWIZY
They say the militants in pick-up trucks arrived in
the
town of Dapchi, Yobe state, on Monday evening,
shooting and setting off explosives. Staff and
students fled, while the militants looted the
school for food. In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270
girls from a school in the north-eastern town of
Chibok.
Some residents and civilian militia in Dapchi said
they
believed the jihadists had planned to kidnap
schoolgirls in their town too, AFP news agency
reports. But a teacher at the school told the BBC
the militants were only interested in looting, and left with food
some three hours later. They had also looted a
shop, one resident said. The jihadists came into
the town, firing guns and
letting off explosives, causing students and
teachers to flee into the surrounding bush. They say that
Nigeria's security forces - backed by
military jets - later repelled the attack. The school
has been shut, and is being guarded by
troops. Last September, a group of more than 100
of the Chibok girls were reunited with their families at a
party in the capital, Abuja. Most of the group were
released in May as part of a
controversial prisoner swap deal with the
Nigerian
government that saw five Boko Haram commanders
released. But more than 100 schoolgirls are still
being held by
Boko Haram, and their whereabouts are
unknown. Boko Haram militants have been
fighting a long insurgency in their quest for an Islamic state in
northern Nigeria. The conflict is estimated to have
killed tens of thousands of people. The Chibok girls
represent a fraction of the women
captured by the militant group, which has
kidnapped thousands during its eight-year insurgency in
northern
Nigeria.
