A giant bulldozer digs a deep ditch amid the bushes surrounding the University of Maiduguri inward northeast Nigeria, turning it into a fortress to forestall farther suicide attacks yesteryear Boko Haram.
About 27 kilometres (17 miles) of trenches are beingness dug roughly the institution, known locally as UNIMAID, which has since the outset of the twelvemonth piece of occupation a primary target of the Islamist militants.
From the fringes of the academy campus, the silent, arid bushland of Borno province stretches out as far as the oculus tin see.
"Suicide bombers unremarkably come upward on pes or yesteryear motorbike," said 1 safety guard, stepping downward from an sometime Fe watchtower overlooking the vast, 43-hectare (106-acre) site.
The eastern side of the campus is non fenced, leaving kilometres of opened upward the world for attackers to endeavor to acquire in.
According to AFP reporting, since Jan at that spot receive got been at to the lowest degree viii suicide bomb attacks against the university, which teaches the "Western" pedagogy the jihadists despise.
But different nearly province primary together with secondary schools, which were either destroyed or closed because of attacks or kidnappings, academy classes receive got non been disrupted.
Christians together with Muslims from across Nigeria receive got studied together since the 1970s. Nearly 45,000 students were registered lastly year, making it 1 of the biggest state-run universities inward the country.
The campus itself was spared from assail until Jan 16.
Muhammadu Nur, a 20-year-old law student, remembered the twenty-four hours vividly, as he ran to the mosque nigh his dormitory when a loud explosion went off at morning time prayers.
Two students together with a lecturer were killed when explosives beingness carried yesteryear a immature daughter were detonated at the entrance to the mosque.
Muhammadu's friend, Abba, was injured together with taken to hospital. He had a leg amputated a few days later.
"Everyone was inward shock," said Muhammadu.
Call for action
The academy campus had until together with then been seen as a haven of peace inward Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded inward 2002 together with which has been repeatedly attacked since the insurgency began inward 2009.
Across the city, suicide attackers together with bombs receive got targeted camps for those displaced yesteryear the conflict, markets, mosques together with motorcoach stations.
"It becomes a habit to encounter mutilated bodies, arms together with legs, blood all over the place," said Muhammadu at the academy cafeteria, wringing his hands.
But fright has gradually laid inward together with if a student's handbag is judged to live overly large, they are right away suspected of beingness "one of them", he added alongside a nervous laugh.
At the goal of June, educatee associations, lecturers together with non-academic staff called for help, demanding urgent measures to goal what they said was the "nightmare" of continual attacks.
If their demands were non met, they threatened to boom at the outset of the novel term inward 2017.
"It is obvious that teaching, learning together with query cannot live effectively conducted inward this atmosphere of fear," they said, adding that lxx lecturers together with many to a greater extent than students had left over the year.
Uncertain future
The academy regime responded as firmly.
"The management of the academy made it clear that nosotros volition non unopen the university," said UNIMAID spokesman Danjuma Gambo.
"It is a symbol of advanced Western education. Closing downward the academy would present that the insurgents are succeeding. It's just what they expect," he added.
The governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, inward reply announced fiscal assist of l 1 chiliad 1000 naira ($160,000, 140,000 euros) to build a perimeter trench several metres (feet) deep.
Security checks at entrances to the campus -- which had previously been relaxed because of counter-insurgency successes -- were reinforced.
Army, constabulary together with civilian militia patrols were introduced twenty-four hours together with night.
Many students, however, said they doubted whether the measures were enough, highlighting the depression reward together with lack of grooming of the people charged alongside protecting them.
"I receive got 14,000 naira monthly together with I haven't been paid for ii months," said 1 safety guard. "I don't desire to expire for Boko Haram."
The end-of-year exams were held inward June together with preparations are beingness made for the provide of the students.
Muhammadu together with his friend Suleiman, who alive alongside their lecturer parents on the campus, volition graduate side yesteryear side year.
The Boko Haram insurgency has non alone killed their classmates. It has likewise affected their hopes for the hereafter inward a percentage where the economic scheme has the world to a halt together with millions create non receive got plenty to eat.
"Many of our friends who already graduated are unemployed now," said Suleiman, a final-year political scientific discipline undergraduate.
"We receive got no view what the hereafter brings," he added.
AFP