Just over a week after the attack in a mall in Nairobi, Kenya, about 50 students from Yobe State College of Agriculture in northeast Nigeria were killed Sunday when attackers open fired in dormitories and burned down classrooms. Officials said they would now work to increase security in schools to prevent future incidents.
According to BBC, after authorities stated that the college had virtually no security, official Abdullahi Bego said that both the government and military would work to increase protection in schools.
Bego said schools in the area would not be closed because the government is “committed to providing education to our children in Yobe state and in north-eastern Nigeria,” and furthermore, closing the schools would only serve to give the attackers what they want.
The attackers are suspected Islamic extremists, likely members of the Boko Haram group. Northeastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency in the midst of Boko Haram’s fighting to overthrow the Nigerian government, to reach their goal of creating an Islamic state, The Associated Press writes. Since 2010, the terrorist organization has killed more than 1,700 people.