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Gunmen have abducted in excess of 300 schoolchildren and staff in what appears to be the most significant group abductions in recent Nigerian history, as reported by a religious organization on the weekend.

Growing Emergency in School Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday assault on St Mary's mixed-gender school in western Nigeria came just a short time after gunmen invaded a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, taking 25 girls.

Earlier accounts had stated 227 victims were seized, but revised figures emerged after a thorough assessment established that 303 pupils and 12 educators had been kidnapped.

The kidnapped children, ranging between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly 50 percent of the school's overall student body of 629.

Government Response and Safety Actions

State authorities have stated that intelligence agencies and police are currently conducting a thorough census to determine the precise number of abducted individuals.

In reaction to the growing security fears, the state government has mandated the closure of every schools in the state, with nearby states following comparable preventive actions.

Furthermore, the federal education ministry has ordered the temporary closure of 47 boarding secondary schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on addressing the emergency.

Latest Violent Incidents

The educational institution kidnappings represent the latest in a sequence of safety breaches that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a church in western Nigeria where assailants killed two people and abducted dozens congregation members during a live-streamed service.

These incidents have taken place against the background of international attention on Nigeria's safety situation.

Historical Context

Nigeria remains scarred by the legacy of the mass abduction of almost 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with some of those girls still missing.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a concerning recording shared by religious organizations, a frightened worker recounted hearing the noise of bikes and cars before experiencing "forceful banging" on multiple gates of the school premises.

"Children were weeping," the staff member reported, describing her panic while searching for keys to the section where the screaming was loudest.

The regional Catholic diocese confirmed that the "attackers acted aggressively and without interruption for almost three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Fears

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned parents were collecting their children from schools following the closure directive.

One parent, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her shock at the scale of the kidnapping, asking how 300 students could be taken at once.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to combat insecurity," and expressed support for external intervention to "salvage this situation."

Continuing Security Issues

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been conducting killings and kidnappings for money in remote areas of northwest and middle Nigeria, where state presence is limited.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, criminal groups demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in rural areas where protection is inadequate.

These groups maintain camps in vast forest areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their increasing alliance with extremist groups from the north-east has become a significant source of concern for officials and experts alike.