Trench warfare: University digs in against Boko Haram
Deep ditch constructed to prevent further suicide attacks by militant group
Agiant bulldozer digs a deep ditch among the bushes surrounding the University of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, turning it into a fortress to prevent further suicide attacks by Boko Haram.
About 27 kilometres of trenches are being dug around the institution, known locally as Unimaid, which has since the start of the year become a main target of the militant group.
From the fringes of the university campus, the silent, arid bushland of Borno state stretches out as far as the eye can see.
“Suicide bombers usually come on foot or by motorbike,” said one security guard, stepping down from an old iron watchtower overlooking the vast, 43-hectare site.
The eastern side of the campus is not fenced, leaving kilometres of open ground for attackers to try to get in.
Since January there have been at least eight suicide bomb attacks against the university, which teaches the “Western” education the militants despise.
But unlike most state primary and secondary schools, which were either destroyed or closed because of attacks or kidnappings, university classes have not been disrupted.
January attack
Christians and Muslims from across Nigeria have studied together since the 1970s. Nearly 45,000 students were registered last year, making it one of the biggest state-run universities in the country.
The campus itself was spared from attack until January 16.
Two students and a lecturer were killed when explosives being carried by a young girl were detonated at the entrance to the mosque.
At the end of June, student associations, lecturers and non-academic staff called for help, demanding Four Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 19 people in a series of attacks that targeted a civilian self-defense force and the people who gathered to mourn their deaths, police in Nigeria said on Wednesday. It was the deadliest attack in months in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency.
Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu said 23 others were wounded in Tuesday night’s attacks. The police commissioner said 12 of the dead were members of a civilian self-defence force and the other seven people had been mourning them.
At least one of the suicide bombers was female, said a spokesman for the self-defense force, Danbatta Bello. The bombers specifically targeted his colleagues while they were on duty, he said.
“A teenage female suicide bomber actually crept to the sandbag post of our boys at Molai and before they could realize what was happening she detonated herself and killed three of our boys,” Bello said. “That happened simultaneously with the one that occurred at the tea vendor’s, where seven of our members who took their time off to eat their dinner were killed,” he said. urgent measures to end what they said was the “nightmare” of continual attacks.
If their demands were not met, they threatened to strike at the start of the new term in 2017.
“It is obvious that teaching, learning and research cannot be effectively conducted in this atmosphere of fear,” they said.
The university authorities responded equally firmly.
“The management of the university made it clear that we will not close the university,” said UNIMAID spokesman Danjuma Gambo. “It is a symbol of advanced Western education. Closing down the university would show that the insurgents are succeeding. It’s exactly what they expect,” he added.
The governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, in response announced financial help of 50 million naira (Dh582,585 or $160,000) to construct a perimeter trench several metres deep.
Security checks at entrances to the campus — which had previously been relaxed because of counter-insurgency successes — were reinforced.