Nigeria’s Northern College Police in the Nigerian northern State of Kano have said that suspected gunmen have raided a college of education in the State capital Kano, killing 15 students and injuring more than 35.

According to the police, the attackers exchange fierce gunfire with the police before breaking the security check point at the entrance to enter into the college to carry out the attack.

Eyewitnesses said the militants fired on fleeing students and setting off explosion devices in the college which is located in the center of Kano city.

The college is a higher institution for training teachers for the education sector and Boko Haram is directly opposed to western education and has target such training institutions in the past.

Local reporters say in July alone this year, the city of Kano suffered five attacks in four days, one of which killed dozens of students in a college just like this very incident.

A lecturer at the school told the Reuters African service that the attack took the school by surprise and that heavy explosion were used by the militants.

“We heard several shots from the gate area and after a few minutes we heard an explosion at the lecture theatre, the attackers were wearing suits and were running and shooting everywhere,” the lecturer said.

Boko Haram has consolidated its recent campaign of annexing territory for its Islamic Caliphate State. The northeastern State of Borno is firmly under its control. All government troops’ station in the area has pulled out, leaving the area to the mercy of the militants according to local reports. Boko Haram has also taken some towns in the State of Adamawa as well.

Boko Haram five-year insurgency has intensified in recent months despite the deployment of thousands of extra troops to the worst-affected areas in the northeast by the Nigerian government.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that Boko Haram has killed more than 3,000 civilians this year alone.

Political analysts say this year is the worse year for Nigeria since Boko Haram began its armed insurgency in 2009.

Boko Haram is a Hausa language which translates to mean “Western education is forbidden” and it sees schools and colleges as a symbol of Western culture in Nigeria.

It has vowed to eradicate such institutions and create an Islamic state in the north of the country.

Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in the state of Borno in April which sparked an international outrage.

An international rescue operation is still being carried out by the US and its allies to be able to locate and free the abducted schoolgirls.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com

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