Murdered, just for going to school

Up to 50 students killed by a suicide bombing shows Boko Haram remains still a serious threat.

Victims of the Potiskum school bombing in Nigeria are treated by doctors. Photo: Adamu Adamu / AP

Just when it seemed like progress was being made in neutralising the threat of Boko Haram – including the possible release of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April – the Nigerian extremist group is thought to have bombed a school assembly. Initial reports said at least 48 boys and young men at the Government Technical Science College in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Potiskum had been killed, their only apparent crime being to have sought an education.

If proof was required about the evil behind Boko Haram’s stated goal of opposing western education, this act must surely provide it. By opposing education, Boko Haram opposes everything it stands for: enlightenment, self-improvement, self-determination and dreams of a better life.

One has to question the Nigerian government’s methods of countering the extremist group. Less than a month ago, Nigeria’s chief of defence, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, was saying orders had been given to stop firing on Boko Haram forces because a deal had been brokered that could have led to the release of the 219 missing girls and young women from the 276 abducted seven months earlier. As with the boys and young men killed yesterday, their only apparent crime was to attend school.

Stones were thrown at the police who responded to the bombing yesterday, demonstrating the community’s entirely justified frustration about how little progress has been made to end Boko Haram’s five-year insurgency. The reported ceasefire last month was supposed to help president Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election campaign but this incident must surely question his viability.

This latest attack must demonstrate to the Nigerian government and to the international community that Boko Haram is an evil organisation more akin to ISIL than to one pursuing a legitimate alternative agenda.

The response should match the threat: any group capable of inflicting this kind of bloodshed deserves no quarter.