Amnesty International has censured attacks on schools in northern Nigeria, saying the assaults have forced thousands to quit their studies.

The rights group said in a report released on Friday that in 2013 alone at least 70 teachers and scores of students have been killed in the West African country.


“Thousands of children have been forced out of schools across communities in northern Nigeria and many teachers have been forced to flee for their safety,” said Amnesty’s deputy Africa director Lucy Freeman.

The report comes days after militants, likely from Boko Haram, stormed a college dormitory in northeast Nigeria as the students slept, killing 40.

The area governor said in a statement that all of those killed on the September 29 attack were students of the College of Agriculture in the town of Gujba in Yobe state.

Amnesty also stated that between 2010 and 2011 the attacks were mostly launched when schools were empty, however, since the beginning of 2013, “they appear to have become more targeted and brutal.”

According to the human rights organization, 15,000 students in the northeastern area of Nigeria have left school amid rising violence while almost 1,000 teachers have quit their posts across the north since 2011.

Amnesty also called on Nigeria to “provide better protection for schools,” as they have been reportedly unguarded in many attack cases.

Boko Haram says its aim is to topple the Nigerian government, which it accuses of being pro-Western.

The group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.

Over the past four years, violence in the north of Africa’s most populous country has claimed the lives of 3,600 people, including killings by the security forces.