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Armed attackers have kidnapped over 300 pupils and educators in what is considered the biggest group abductions in modern Nigerian history, according to a Christian organization on the weekend.

Escalating Emergency in School Facilities

The Friday morning raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria happened just a short time after gunmen attacked a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, taking 25 young women.

Initial accounts had indicated 227 victims were taken, but revised figures surfaced after a thorough counting process determined that 303 students and 12 instructors had been kidnapped.

The taken pupils, ranging between eight and 18 years, account for nearly 50 percent of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Government Response and Security Actions

Local authorities have stated that intelligence agencies and law enforcement are currently performing a thorough assessment to establish the exact number of abducted people.

In response to the growing security concerns, the state government has directed the closure of all schools in the region, with nearby states adopting comparable preventive steps.

Additionally, the federal education department has directed the provisional shutting of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has postponed international engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on handling the situation.

Latest Security Events

The school kidnappings constitute the latest in a series of safety incidents that have shaken the country, including an assault on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where gunmen killed two individuals and seized numerous congregation members during a live-streamed service.

These incidents have occurred against the background of international focus on Nigeria's security situation.

Past Context

Nigeria continues to be scarred by the memory of the large-scale kidnapping of almost 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with some of those victims still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Testimonies

In a disturbing recording shared by religious groups, a frightened worker described hearing the noise of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on multiple gates of the school premises.

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

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

Citizen Reaction and Fears

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned guardians were collecting their students from educational institutions following the closure directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the scale of the abduction, questioning how 300 children could be abducted at once.

She concluded that the "government is not doing enough to combat the security crisis," and expressed approval for external assistance to "resolve this crisis."

Continuing Safety Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed bandit groups have been carrying out murders and kidnappings for money in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where state presence is minimal.

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

These groups maintain bases in vast forest areas spanning several states in western Nigeria.

While these bandits have no ideological leanings and are primarily motivated by monetary profit, their increasing cooperation with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a major source of concern for authorities and security analysts alike.