Nigeria closes schools in order to prevent Boko Haram attacks

Nigeria has shut five government-run schools in the country's northeast in the wake of a deadly series of attacks targeting students.

A Ministry of Education statement issued late Wednesday said the affected schools were “located within the high security risk areas of the northeast geo-political zone.”

Students of the schools in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, which are worst hit by violence from the armed group Boko Haram, would be absorbed into other government schools, it added.

Last week, 43 students were shot and hacked to death when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe state.

An unknown number of female students were also abducted during the overnight attack, and the whole school was burned down.

The traumatized students have refused to stay in their schools and colleges since the attack, which was the latest against schoolchildren by the group.

Boko Haram, which translates roughly as “Western education is sin,” rejects a so-called Western curriculum and has burned hundreds of schools in its four-and-a-half-year fight to create an Islamic state in the Muslim-majority north.

Yobe state authorities said last October that Boko Haram attacks had razed 209 schools, causing damage worth an estimated $15.6 million.

The attacks have stirred fears about the effect on education in a region that already lags behind the rest of Nigeria in social and economic development.

Last May, Nigeria launched a military offensive to flush out Boko Haram from the region, but attacks have continued, particularly in remote border areas.

The announcement of school closures comes after several deadly attacks in the past few weeks. More than 130 people have been killed in just the past five days.

On Wednesday, Boko Haram members burned 11 people to death inside their homes in northeastern Nigeria.

The attack late Monday on Jakana village in Borno state occurred about 6 miles from a village where 39 people were slaughtered on Saturday.  

Al Jazeera and wire services