16th May, 2014
A group of gunmen razed two schools in Bauchi state, northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram gunmen previously attacked a girls’ school, a police spokesman said on Thursday.
Dozens of gunmen in cars and on motorcycles stormed the neighbouring villages of Shadarki and Yelwan Darazo, setting two primary schools ablaze, one in each village, said officer Haruna Mohammed.
“The attackers came in a group of around 30 and set fire to Shadarki Primary school before proceeding to Yelwan Darazo where they also burnt another primary school and a telecoms mast.”
No one was hurt in the attacks, which happened at about 11:00 pm on Wednesday when the schools were empty, he added.
None of the gunmen was arrested and Mohammed declined to say if the attackers were from Boko Haram, which has carried out deadly attacks in the area.
Boko Haram, which translates from the Hausa language spoken widely in north Nigeria as “Western education is forbidden”, has destroyed hundreds of schools in the northeast in the past two years.
Scores of students have been killed in their dormitories in a series of school raids and on April 14, 276 girls were abducted from their school in the remote town of Chibok in northeastern Borno state.