Why Boko Haram spared female students and killed only boys in Yobe attack

The massacre of students at the Federal Government College in the Buni Yadi area of Yobe was shrouded in mystery after reports revealed that only male students were killed.

It has however emerged that the extremists intentionally spared the female students telling them to abandon their education and get married.

Boko Haram initially started out as a campaign against western education but many believe the motives of the group have changed.

Leadership reports:

A spokesman for a Nigerian governor says soldiers who were guarding a checkpoint near a government school were mysteriously withdrawn from the checkpoint, just hours before an attack yesterday by suspected Islamic extremists.

The attack left at least 29 students dead at a school dormitory.

Officials say female students at the co-ed school were spared — and that the attackers instead told them to go home and get married and to abandon their Western education.

The attackers set a locked dormitory on fire. As students escaped through the windows, they were shot and their throats were slit. Some were burned alive.