One hundred and seventy-six teachers have been
killed and 900 schools destroyed in Nigeria's Borno state since
Boko Haram militants intensified their violent attacks in 2011,
officials said on Thursday.
The governor of the northeastern state Kashim Shettima
revealed the horrifying statistics in a statement to a committee
attempting to make the country's schools safer.
The Safe Schools Initiative has been backed by former British
prime minister Gordon Brown, who is the representative of the
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Brown pledged $10m to the scheme during last May's World
Economic Forum, while Nigeria's private sector is expected to
put in $9.8m.
Although the scheme covers the whole of Africa's most populous
nation, it is scheduled to start off in Borno and neighbouring
Yobe and Adamawa, the three states under emergency rule
since May last year, and the hardest hit by Boko Haram's five-
year-old insurgency.
Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok in
Borno on 14 April. Fifty-seven of the girls have escaped while
the remaining 219 are thought to be still held hostage.
The group has attacked many schools and killed hundreds of
students in the northeast of the country since it began its
violence.
Shettima briefed the committee on the current state of
education following the insurgency, while security and
counter-terrorism experts from donor agencies formally
presented a road-map for school safety, the statement said.
AFP
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