Cowards! Boko Haram opens fire on sleeping teenagers in Yobe. About 40 students killed while sleeping in their hostels by Boko Haram gunmen

Boko Haram gunmen on Sunday stormed a college dormitory in Nigeria’s conflict-scarred northeast, firing on students as they slept, the military told AFP, in the latest such attack blamed on the Islamist insurgents.

Security forces were at the

scene but details on the number of dead and injured were not yet available, area military spokesman Lazarus Eli said.

The early morning assault targeted the College of Agriculture in the town of Gujba in Yobe state, Eli said.

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It was carried out by “Boko Haram terrorists who went into the school and opened fire on students,” while they were sleeping, he added.

A police source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that initial reports indicated the death toll could be high but he was not prepared to discuss figures. However reports have that not less than 40 were killed in the attack.

Gujba is roughly 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the state capital of Damaturu. Yobe State has witness a series of brutal attacks targeting students in recent months, all blamed on Boko Haram.

The worst occurred in July in the town of Mamudo, where the Islamists threw explosives and sprayed gunfire into dormitories in the middle of the night, killing 41 students.

The military has described the spate of recent school attacks as a sign of desperation by the Islamists, claiming they only have the capacity to hit soft targets. The defence ministry has said that an offensive launched against Boko Haram in mid-May has decimated the group and scattered their fighters across remote parts of the northeast.

Boko Haram have demonstrated their cowardice in recent times by not confronting the soldiers but preferring to attack people in more remote areas with little presence of security forces and often targeting defenceless civilians.