The University of Maiduguri is having a 27 kilometre trench being built around it in an attempt to prevent attacks by militant group, Boko Haram.
On Sunday three suicide bombers attacked the research university, killing themselves and a security guard. The attacks came amid a dramatic increase in violence in Maiduguri in recent months.
Boko Haram, who want an Islamic state, loosely translates from Hausa as “Western education is forbidden”, the BBC states.
Reports from Nigerian police say that in the first attack on Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the grounds of the university, killing a female security guard.
Minutes later, four female suicide bombers then attacked two villages that feature just outside of the city, killing 12 people.
It is a hope that the trenches built will make it more difficult, almost impossible, for militants to drive into the university as well as making it harder for them to access the campus on foot.
Borno state governor Kashim Shettima is financing the trench and has asked the Nigerian government for money to fund a permanent barrier – according to the BBC.
Shettima is also releasing money to pay allowances to guards drawn from local vigilante groups, who are working with the police to patrol the area.
He told the BBC that while the university was a federal institution, it was the Borno state government’s responsibility to stop the militants from achieving their aim of forcing the university’s closure.
