Unknown assailants in northeastern Nigeria have killed three North Korean doctors, beheading one of them.
The tragic incident reportedly occurred on Sunday morning in Potiskum LGA of Yobe state.
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, there are strong indications that the Boko Haram sect is behind the attack.
According to Dr. Mohammed Mamman, chairman of the Hospital Managing Board of Yobe State, the assailants killed the North Korean doctors inside their home.
It was learnt that deceased doctors had no security guards at their residence and traveled around the city without a police escort.
All three bodies had what appeared to be machete wounds.
Two of the men had their throats slit. The assailants beheaded the other doctor.
“The doctors were living in a quiet neighbourhood of the town because there was not room to house them at the hospital, where they would have had some security protection,” Mamman said.
Initially, doctors at the hospital who worked with the three men identified them as being from South Korea, while the police said they were from China.
However, Dr. Mamman disclosed that the three men were from North Korea and had lived in the state since 2005 as part of a medical program between Yobe State and the North Korean government.
More than a dozen other North Korean doctors’ work in the state under the program, which also includes engineers, Dr. Mamman said.
He said all the North Koreans would receive immediate protection from the security forces.
“It is very unfortunate,” he said of the killings.
The Yobe State police commissioner, Sanusi Rufai, confirmed that the attack took place and said that officers had begun an investigation.
“They invaded the apartment of the doctors… and slit their throats,”
Mr. Rufai said the police had already arrested 10 people.
“At this point we cannot say if they are Boko Haram, hired killers or common criminals, but we have cordoned off the area and are in the process of interrogating them,”
Their corpses have since been deposited at the Federal Medical Center, Azare.
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