By Busa Buji, Nigeria, July 2024- Rescue workers are in a desperate race to find students buried under the rubble after a two-story school building collapsed during morning classes on Friday in north-central Nigeria, killing 22 students.
Authorities reported that they are searching for more than 100 people believed to be trapped in the debris. The Saints Academy College in Plateau state’s Busa Buji community collapsed shortly after classes began, trapping many students aged 15 years or younger.
“As of this morning, we have a total of 22 lives lost, many are still in hospital, but we thank God, the casualties could have been more because yesterday we understand that quite a number of the final year students did not come to school,” said Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang.
Initially, 154 students were reported to be trapped in the rubble. Plateau police spokesperson Alfred Alabo later stated that 132 had been rescued and were receiving treatment for injuries in various hospitals.
Dozens of villagers gathered near the school, some weeping and others offering assistance, as excavators worked through the debris from the collapsed building.
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that rescue and health workers, along with security forces, were deployed to the scene immediately after the collapse, launching a search for the trapped students.
The state government attributed the tragedy to the school’s “weak structure and location near a riverbank.” It has urged other schools facing similar issues to shut down immediately.
Building collapses are becoming alarmingly common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with more than a dozen incidents recorded in the last two years. Authorities often cite poor enforcement of building safety regulations and inadequate maintenance as the primary causes of such disasters.
