Boko Haram abduct 100 schoolgirls from boarding school in North Eastern Nigeria

Around 100 girls are thought to have been abducted in an attack on a school in north-east Nigeria, officials say.

Gunmen reportedly arrived at the school in Chibok, Borno state, late last night, and ordered the hostel's teenage residents on to lorries.

The attackers are believed to be from the Islamist group, Boko Haram, whose militants frequently target schools.

On Monday, bombings blamed on the group killed more than 70 people in the capital, Abuja.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, has been waging an armed campaign for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

A government official in Borno state told the BBC around 100 girls were thought to have been abducted from the school.

The exact number of missing students had yet to be established, as some of the girls had managed to return to their homes.

Parents had earlier told the BBC that more than 200 students had been taken from the school.

Residents in the area reported hearing explosions followed by gunfire last night, said BBC reporter Mohammed Kabir Mohammed in the capital, Abuja.

"Many girls were abducted by the rampaging gunmen who stormed the school in a convoy of vehicles," AFP news agency quotes Emmanuel Sam, an education official in Chibok, as saying.

Another witness, who requested anonymity, told AFP that gunmen overpowered soldiers who had been deployed to provide extra security ahead of annual exams.

A girl, who managed to escape and wished not to be named, told the BBC she and fellow students were sleeping when armed men burst into their hostel.

"Three men came into our room and told us not to panic. We later found out later that they were among the attackers," she said.

The girls said she and her schoolmates were taken away in a convoy, which had to slow down after some of the vehicles developed a fault.

Around 10 to 15 girls seized the opportunity to escape.

"We ran into the bush and waited until daybreak before we went back home," she said.

Nigerian media reported that two members of the security forces had been killed, and residents said 170 houses were burnt down during the attack.

Boko Haram emerged as a critic of Western-style education, and its militants frequently target schools and educational institutions.

This year, the group's fighters have killed more than 1,500 civilians in three states in north-east Nigeria, which are currently under emergency rule.

The government recently said that Boko Haram's activities were confined to that part of the country.

However, Monday's bombings in Abuja prompted renewed fears that the militants were extending their campaign to the capital.


BBC

Nigeria continues with plans to host World Economic Forum after terrorist attack on capital

Nigeria will continue to host the World Economic Forum in Abuja despite yesterdays bomb attack that killed 71.

Nigeria has pledged that they will put together the "largest security operation ever mounted in the country for an international summit" to protect guests - Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement sent to forum participants.

The 24th World Economic Forum on Africa will be held in Abuja, Nigeria, on 7-9 May 2014.

ITV

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Video - Some Lagosians forced to turn to alternate water supply

In Nigeria's Lagos state many residents have turned to informal wells to provide them with water. Some of the state's water infrastructure has been neglected for decades and officials say the little infrastructre that does exist, is over burdened. Millions of residents now rely on informal well diggers to get their water supply.

Video - Bomb blast in Abuja kills 71

A morning rush hour bomb killed at least 71 people at a Nigerian bus station on the outskirts of the capital on Monday, raising concerns about the spread of an Islamist insurgency after the deadliest ever attack on Abuja.

Suspicion fell on Boko Haram, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Islamists who are mainly active in the northeast. As well as 71 dead, police said 124 were wounded in the first attack on the federal capital in two years.

Security experts suspect the explosion was inside a vehicle, said Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, director of search and rescue operations. The bus station, 8 km (5 miles) southwest of central Abuja, serves Nyanya, a poor, ethnically and religiously mixed satellite town where many residents work in the city.

"I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion, then saw smoke," said Mimi Daniels, who escaped from the blast with minor injuries to her arm.

"People were running around in panic."

Bloody remains lay strewn over the ground as security forces struggled to hold back a crowd of onlookers and fire crews hosed down a bus still holding the charred bodies of commuters.

"These are the remains of my friend," said a man, who gave his name as John, holding up a bloodied shirt. "His travel ticket with his name on was in the shirt pocket."

The attack underscored the vulnerability of Nigeria's federal capital, built in the 1980s in the geographic center of the country to replace coastal Lagos as the seat of government for what is now Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer.

Boko Haram militants fighting for an Islamic state have largely been confined to the remote northeast. They have been particularly active there over the past few months and are increasingly targeting civilians they accuse of collaborating with the government or security forces.

"NO SURPRISE"

"In some ways it's not a big surprise," said Kole Shettima, director of the Abuja office of U.S. charitable institution, the

MacArthur Foundation. "The situation has been escalating.

"It's a statement that they are still around and they can attack Abuja when they want, and instill fear."

The Islamists, who want to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, have in the past year mostly concentrated their attacks in the northeast, where their insurgency started.

There had been no such violence near the capital since suicide car bombers targeted the offices of the newspaper This Day in Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna in April 2012.

Security forces at the time said that was because a Boko Haram cell in neighboring Niger state had been broken up.

A Christmas Day bombing of a church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, killed 37 people in 2011, although the main suspect in that attack is now behind bars. Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the United Nations' Nigeria headquarters that killed 24 people on August 26, 2011.

Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of largely Muslim northern Nigeria means broadly "Western education is sinful", is loosely modeled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, and has forged ties with al Qaeda-linked militants in the Sahara.

Reuters

Chiwetel Ejiofor on shooting Half of a Yellow Sun in rural Nigeria

 Chiwetel Ejiofor has said he felt it was "correct" to shoot Half Of A Yellow Sun in rural Nigeria despite filming difficulties, because they were the areas most affected by the war.

Oscar nominee Chiwetel's latest film is an adaptation of the book Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, which tells the story of four people caught up in the Biafran War and Niferia's struggle for an independent republic.

Talking about the filming location, the 36-year-old star said: "Whenever I've been to Nigeria in the past, I've been to Lagos, Abuja and Nogu, which is where my family are and it's a bit more rural but it's in, comparatively to where we were [filming] in Calabar, it's very industrialised.

"We were out in a very rural part of Nigeria, which really made sense for the story, but it has its own challenges, just in terms of getting to places and moving equipment.

"So yeah it was complicated, but it's completely beautiful as well and so correct for the film."

He continued: "The nature of the Biafran War was so much of the struggles happened in the small villages. They were the people who really suffered as a result of the conflict.

"It felt correct to get out there and tell the story in that way."

The 12 Years A Slave star has spoken before about his own family's involvement in the war, including his grandfather's, and added that he was pleased to be able to tell a story so personal to him.

He said: "I'd always understood its very profound relevance to me and my family history and so I was excited about getting a bit of that out there and talking about it all."

Half Of A Yellow Sun is in cinemas now.

Belfast Telegraph

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