Nigeria has shut five government colleges in the country's restive northeast in the wake of a deadly series of attacks targeting schools.

A ministry of education statement issued late Wednesday said the affected schools were "located within the high security risk areas of the northeast geo-political zone".

Students of the schools in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, which are worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, would be absorbed in other government colleges, it added.

Last week, 43 students were shot and hacked to death when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe state.

An undisclosed number of female students was abducted during the overnight attack while the whole school was burnt down.

The traumatised students have refused to stay in their schools and colleges since the attack, which was the latest against schoolchildren by the militants.

Boko Haram, which translates roughly from Hausa as "Western education is sin", rejects a so-called Western curriculum and has burnt hundreds of schools in its four-and-a-half year fight to create an Islamic state in the Muslim-majority north.

Yobe state authorities said last October that Boko Haram attacks had razed 209 schools, causing damage worth an estimated $15.6 million (11.4 million euros).

The attacks have raised fears about the effect on education in a region that already lags behind the rest of Nigeria in social and economic development.

Nigeria has since May launched a military offensive to flush out the extremists from the region, but attacks have continued, particularly in remote, border areas.

The country's top police officer, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, said on Tuesday that security agencies were "doing everything humanly possible" to prevent future school attacks.

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