AJC: Terrorists Murder Dozens of Nigerian Students

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Sep 29, 2013, 11:05 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is horrified by the latest terrorist attack in Nigeria, this time targeting a college. According to reports, nearly 50 students were murdered in an overnight assault on their dormitory at the Yobe College of Agriculture.

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Boko Haram, the Islamist terrorist group fighting to create a Sharia-based state in Nigeria, is suspected of having carried out the attack, chillingly similar to other fatal terror actions in the region.

"This brutal rampage, gunning down innocent youngsters in their sleep, demonstrates again the cowardice of the perpetrators, driven by a demented ideology that celebrates the killing of children of another faith or background," said AJC Executive Director David Harris.

"We can only hope, as we have expressed before, that the Nigerian government will ultimately succeed it in its efforts to defeat the terrorist scourge, benefit from the support of the international community, and bring to justice those responsible for these brutal murders," said Harris.

Boko Haram means "Western education is sacrilege." It has been linked to dozens of deadly assaults in northeastern Nigeria against Christian worshipers and other targets, including schools. In July, Boko Haram attacked a secondary school in Mamudo, also in Yobe, leaving scores dead, almost all of them children.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee