Pupils’ Massacre: Parents Storm Hospital For Their Children

                           
It was just like a sad  moment at the Gen. Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu,  as parents of the students were attacked by the deadly groups of Boko Haram stormed inside the hospital looking for their children who may have died or injured. Many hoped to see their children among the injured ones while some already lost hope of finding their children alive after hearing how they were massacred.  43 pupils were reportedly killed. A parent said yesterday that 29 died.


 At the Gen. Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu, the state capital where the injured were taken, officials were busy attending to distraught parents searching for their wards. Only three of the 11 injured were being treated at the hospital. The others had been taken away by their parents.

Parents/Teachers’ Association Chairman Mohammed Kati Machina, an engineer, recounted the grim, but unavoidable task of burying the dead. He said:

  “We buried two of the eight burnt students at Buni Yadi because they were so badly burnt. Ten bodies were brought to Damaturu, with six burnt beyond recognition.”

Machina,  said 29 pupils were killed.

  “We have an authentic report from the hospital and what we gathered is that only 29 students were killed. Twenty-one students were killed by gunshots while eight were burnt beyond recognition. Eleven of the students were injured and three have been admitted at the Gen. Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu. Some of the injured students have been taken away by their parents.” “Two of the bodies were taken away to Gombe for burial by their parents,” he added.

The PTA chairman urged the Federal Government to provide security around schools, especially in Yobe and Borno states – two of the three states worst-hit by the Boko Haram insurgency. He sent his condolences to the families of the dead children. The school was just resuming from mid-break before the attack.