Boko Haram has attacked a girls’ school in the Yobe state of Nigeria with fears that several school girls might have been abducted as they are uncounted for.
On Monday members of the group stormed the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi with locals initially saying that the girls and their teachers fled the attack.
A resident, Abubakar Shehu told AFP that “Our girls have been missing for two days and we don’t know their whereabouts”.
“Although we were told they had run to some villages, we have been to all these villages mentioned without any luck. We are beginning to harbour fears the worst might have happened. We have the fear that we are dealing with another Chibok scenario,” the resident whose niece is reported missing.
Over 50 parents have visited the school demanding information about their children. School officials have said that there were 710 students at the boarding school run by the state.
Inuwa Mohammed, whose 16-year-old daughter, Falmata, is also missing, was quoted by the AFP as saying that “Nobody is telling us anything officially,” he said. “We still don’t know how many of our daughters were recovered and how many are still missing.
“We have been hearing many numbers, between 67 and 94,” Mohammed said.
Police in the state have said that they have no reports of abductions following the attack.
Meanwhile the school has been closed down according to Yobe’s education commissioner, Mohammed Lamin, who said a roll call of all the girls who have returned was being conducted.
“It is only after the head-count that we will be able to say whether any girls were taken,” he said.
Some of the girls had fled to villages up to 30km away through the remote bushland, he added.
Boko Haram has in the past abducted school girls from Chibok which received worldwide condemnation and campaigns for their release. Some of the over 200 Chibok girls kidnapped have been release and rescued.
Source: Africafeeds.com
