Nigeria attack: Suspected Islamist gunmen target college

Militants have regularly targeted schools in Yobe

Many students are feared dead after suspected Islamist gunmen struck a college in north-eastern Nigeria.

The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state.
North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency amid an Islamic insurgency by the Boko Haram group.
Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government to create an Islamist state, and has launched a number of attacks on schools.
Classrooms burned The number of casualties in the latest attack is unclear but there are fears the death toll could be high.

Boko Haram at-a-glance

• Founded in 2002
• Official Arabic name, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad"
• Initially focused on opposing Western education
• Nicknamed Boko Haram, a phrase in the local Hausa language meaning, "Western education is forbidden"
• Launches military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state across Nigeria
• Founding leader Mohammed Yusuf killed in same year in police custody
• Succeeded by Abubakar Shekau, who the military wrongly claimed in 2009 had been killed
• Suspected to have split into rival factions in 2012
• Military claims in August 2013 that Mr Shekau and his second-in-command Momodu Bama have been killed in separate attacks; no independent confirmation

One hospital source in Yobe's state capital, Damaturu, told Reuters news agency that 26 bodies had been brought there.

College provost Molima Idi Mato told Associated Press the death toll could be as high as 50, adding that security forces were still recovering the bodies and that about 1,000 students had fled the campus.
A military spokesman in Yobe state, Lazarus Eli, told Agence France-Presse the gunmen had also set fire to classrooms.
The college is in the rural Gujba district.
In May, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an operation against Boko Haram, and a state of emergency was declared for the north-east on 14 May.
Many of the Islamist militants left their bases in the north-east and violence initially fell, but revenge attacks quickly followed.
In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.
At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.

In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist militants attacked a school's dormitories with guns and explosives, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.
Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. Its name translates as "Western education is forbidden".
Boko Haram is led by Abubakar Shekau. The Nigerian military said in August that it might have killed him in a shoot-out.
However, a video released last week purportedly showed him alive.
Other previous reports of his death later proved to be unfounded.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24322683