Global Watchdog HRW Condemns Boko Haram Attacks on colleges

The Human Right Watch, HRW Wednesday condemned as “reprehensible” attacks by Boko Haram on colleges in and around Maiduguri.

“Boko Haram’s attacks on colleges is an uncalled development since the cluster began its campaign of violence in 2009,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch .

As a results of the attacks, at least 5,000 students are staying at home, HRW said in a very statement, quoting media reports.

Over the past 2 weeks a minimum of a dozen public and personal colleges in Maiduguri are set ablaze by members of the sect, reports AFP.

The Islamist Boko Haram, whose name interprets to “Western education is sin”, has claimed responsibility for a few of these attacks, saying their actions were in response to “raids” by troopers on an Islamic seminary within the town.

A self-styled spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, said last month that the college attacks were over the “indiscriminate arrests of scholars of Koranic colleges by security agents”.

Human Rights Watch said the attacks on colleges “not solely place kids and teachers’ lives in danger, however they’ll conjointly deprive kids of an education. Colleges could shut and kids drop out entirely.”

Nigeria may be a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and therefore the Convention on the Rights of the kid, each of that guarantee kids the right to education, HRW said.

Troops in Maiduguri on Monday shot dead 3 suspected Boko Haram members, injured and captured 2 others as they allegedly tried to burn down a college, the military said.

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