Soldiers recovered 42 bodies and transported 18 wounded students to hospital, according to the latest report by AP, citing a military intelligence official, who insisted on anonymity. Earlier, the college’s principal, Idi Mato, suggested that as many as 50 students could have been killed in the assault.
The attack on the agricultural college in rural Gujba of Nigiria’s northeastern Yobe state began at 1am local time on Sunday.
"Boko Haram terrorists… went into the school and opened fire on students," the military spokesman in Yobe, Lazarus Eli, told AFP.
The extremists rode into the college in two double-cabin pickup all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, some dressed in Nigerian military uniforms, according to AP citing a surviving student, Ibrahim Mohammed.
Witnesses say the extremists were apparently aware of the college layout, as they left the female dormitories intact.
"They came with guns around 1am (24:00 GMT) and went directly to the male hostel and opened fire on them... The college is in the bush so the other students were running around helplessly as guns went off and some of them were shot down," Ahmed Gujunba, a taxi driver who lives by the college told Reuters.
Boko Haram is the group’s popular nickname, which roughly means ‘Western education is forbidden’. The militant organization’s official title is ‘The Congregation and People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihads’ and it has been fighting in Nigeria’s north since 2009. The group is notorious for targeting civilians.
It is the extremist militant groups’ third attack on a school in Nigeria's northeastern state in four months. In July, a similar assault left 41 students and an English teacher at a boarding school dead.
A state of emergency was declared in northeastern part of the country on May 14, with thousands of government troops being sent to the region. Following the most recent massacre, Ibrahim Gaidam, governor of Yobe state, suggested that the military crackdown was ineffective.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday promised a change in tactics concerning fight against extremists, not going into detail though.
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