by Rachel Ogbu

Following the murder of seven students at the Government Secondary School in Yobe last week, suspected Islamist militants struck again, this time shooting more students in Maiduguri, Borno state.

On Tuesday while students were writing exams, gun men suspected to be members of Boko Haram opened fire in the classroom at the Ansarudeen School killing nine students.

According to an eyewitness named Ibrahim Mohammed, the killers opened fire at random.

“I saw five students sitting for the exams killed on the spot. Four others were killed as they were entering the school premises,” he explained on the telephone, still shaking with fear,” he said.

[READ: Terrible: Boko Haram kills 7 students, 2 teachers in Yobe ]

The Punch reports:

In another attack on Monday, suspected extremists gunned down a group of fisherman on a river bank in Alau, located 20 kilometers outside Maiduguri.

It was believed that 13 fishermen were killed during the attack.

Most of the victims were relatives of people who have been arresting members of a radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram.

“They said, ‘Your children brought this fate upon you; they are busy catching our members and handing them to soldiers to be killed’,” recalled one eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“They then shot them dead, and asked the remaining of us to run for our lives and take the message to the youth vigilante.”

Mortuary attendant, Alhaji Baba, at the State Specialists morgue in Maiduguri told Reuters he counted nine corpses brought in after the attack.

The military was not immediately available for comment.

The two attacks have raised fears that a month-long offensive by government troops has merely pushed militants into hiding, from where they can still launch devastating operations.