Nigeria condemns deadly attack on Kenyan university

Nigeria’s outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan condemned Thursday’s attack by Shebab Islamist group on a university in Kenya that left at least 70 students dead, describing it as “heinous” and “barbaric”.

A statement from Jonathan’s office said the president “utterly condemns the deliberate targeting of innocent persons, schools and other soft targets by terrorists.”

“Such atrocious, despicable and barbaric acts of violence ought to have no place in any civilised society,” it said.

At least 70 Kenyan students were killed when the Shebab Islamist group raided Garissa University College in Kenya, in the country’s deadliest attack since the US embassy bombings in 1998.

Jonathan, who was defeated by Muhammadu Buhari in this weekend’s presidential election, said he would continue to work with Kenya, other African countries and the international community “to rid the world of all terrorist groups.”

Nigeria, with the support of troops from Chad, Cameroon and Niger, is battling an insurgency by Boko Haram Islamists which has claimed at least 13,000 lives since it began in northeast Nigeria in 2009.