The European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has criticized the “horrific murder by terrorists” of dozens of people in a Saturday attack on a secondary school in Mamudo, Yobe and promised her solidarity to Nigeria in the anti-terrorism struggle.
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the horrific murder by terrorists of some 30 innocent children and a teacher early on Saturday morning in a school in Mamudo town in northeastern Nigeria,” she said in a statement.
Ms Ashton pledged Nigerians the EU is determined “to help them bring security, peace and reconciliation to the north.”
Survivors of the dawn attack, blamed on the rebel group Boko Haram, said gunmen rounded up students and staff at the school and placed them in a dormitory before throwing explosives inside and opening fire. A hospital official in nearby Potiskum said 42 people were killed. A spokesman for Nigeria’s military, which often underplays casualty figures, said 20 students and one teacher were killed.
