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Gunmen have seized more than 300 schoolchildren and staff in one of the most significant group abductions in modern Nigerian times, as reported by a religious organization on the weekend.

Escalating Crisis in Educational Institutions

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

Initial reports had suggested 227 victims were seized, but updated figures surfaced after a thorough assessment confirmed that 303 students and 12 teachers had been kidnapped.

The abducted children, aged between eight and 18 years, represent nearly half of the school's overall student body of 629.

Official Response and Safety Measures

Local authorities have confirmed that security departments and police are currently performing a comprehensive assessment to establish the precise number of missing people.

In response to the growing security concerns, the local authorities has directed the shutting of all schools in the state, with nearby states adopting comparable preventive actions.

Additionally, the federal education ministry has ordered the provisional closure of 47 residential high schools across the country.

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

Recent Violent Incidents

The school kidnappings constitute the latest in a sequence of security incidents that have shaken the country, including an attack on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two people and seized many worshipers during a online broadcast 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 kidnapping of almost 300 female students by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with some of those girls still missing.

Eyewitness Testimonies

In a disturbing video clip circulated by religious organizations, a upset employee described hearing the sounds of bikes and cars before experiencing "forceful banging" on multiple entrances of the school premises.

"Students were weeping," the staff member stated, recounting her terror while looking for keys to the area where the screaming was most intense.

The regional Catholic diocese stated that the "attackers operated violently and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, searching dormitories."

Citizen Reaction and Fears

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned guardians were collecting their children from educational institutions following the shutdown order.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her shock at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 children could be abducted simultaneously.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to combat the security crisis," and voiced support for external intervention to "resolve this crisis."

Ongoing Safety Issues

For a long time, well-equipped bandit groups have been conducting murders and abductions for money in remote areas of northern and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the latest incidents, criminal groups demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in countryside locations where security is inadequate.

These groups maintain bases in extensive forest areas spanning multiple states in western Nigeria.

While these criminals have no political motives and are mainly motivated by monetary profit, their increasing cooperation with extremist groups from the north-east has become a major source of worry for authorities and experts alike.