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Armed attackers have kidnapped over 300 pupils and educators in what is considered the most significant collective seizures in modern Nigerian experience, as stated by a religious organization on Saturday.

Growing Crisis in School Facilities

The Friday morning raid on St Mary's mixed-gender school in western Nigeria came just a short time after gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, taking 25 female students.

Initial accounts had stated 227 victims were taken, but revised numbers surfaced after a detailed verification exercise established that 303 students and 12 teachers had been kidnapped.

The kidnapped children, aged between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly 50 percent of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Government Response and Security Actions

Local officials have confirmed that intelligence agencies and law enforcement are currently performing a thorough assessment to determine the precise number of abducted people.

In reaction to the growing security concerns, the local authorities has ordered the shutting of every schools in the region, with neighboring states following similar precautionary steps.

Furthermore, the federal education department has ordered the provisional closure of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed international commitments, including participation at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on handling the situation.

Recent Violent Events

The school abductions represent the most recent in a series of safety incidents that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a church in the west of Nigeria where assailants killed two people and abducted numerous worshipers during a live-streamed service.

These events have taken place against the backdrop of international attention on Nigeria's security situation.

Past Background

Nigeria remains scarred by the memory of the large-scale abduction of almost 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with several of those girls still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Testimonies

In a concerning video clip circulated by religious organizations, a distraught school staff member described hearing the noise of bikes and vehicles before hearing "forceful banging" on multiple gates of the compound.

"Children were screaming," the witness stated, recounting her fear while looking for keys to the area where the crying was loudest.

The regional Catholic authority stated that the "attackers operated aggressively and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Fears

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, concerned guardians were collecting their children from schools following the shutdown order.

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the magnitude of the kidnapping, asking how 300 children could be abducted at once.

She concluded that the "authorities is not doing enough to address insecurity," and expressed support for international intervention to "salvage this situation."

Continuing Safety Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been carrying out killings and kidnappings for ransom in remote areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where state presence is limited.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the recent incidents, bandit gangs demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in countryside locations where protection is inadequate.

These groups maintain camps in vast woodland areas spanning multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their growing alliance with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a major cause of concern for officials and security analysts alike.