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Gunmen have kidnapped over 300 schoolchildren and staff in one of the largest collective seizures in modern Nigerian history, as stated by a religious organization on Saturday.

Growing Emergency in School Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday attack on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria came just days after armed men stormed a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 female students.

Initial accounts had indicated 227 individuals were seized, but new numbers surfaced after a thorough verification exercise established that 303 students and 12 educators had been abducted.

The abducted pupils, aged between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly 50 percent of the school's overall student body of 629.

Official Reaction and Safety Actions

State officials have confirmed that security agencies and law enforcement are presently performing a thorough head count to verify the precise number of abducted people.

In reaction to the increasing security fears, the local authorities has mandated the closure of every schools in the region, with nearby states following comparable precautionary steps.

Additionally, the federal education department has directed the temporary closure of 47 residential high schools across the country.

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

Recent Violent Incidents

The school abductions represent the most recent in a sequence of safety incidents that have shaken the nation, including an attack on a church in western Nigeria where gunmen shot dead two individuals and seized many congregation members during a live-streamed service.

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

Historical Context

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

Firsthand Accounts

In a concerning recording shared by Christian groups, a upset school staff member described hearing the noise of motorcycles and cars before experiencing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Children were crying," the witness reported, recounting her panic while searching for keys to the section where the crying was loudest.

The local Catholic diocese confirmed that the "attackers operated violently and uninterrupted for almost three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Concerns

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

One parent, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her shock at the magnitude of the abduction, questioning how 300 students could be abducted simultaneously.

She stated that the "government is failing to act to address the security crisis," and expressed support for external intervention to "resolve this crisis."

Continuing Safety Challenges

For years, well-equipped bandit groups have been conducting murders and abductions for money in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While nobody has taken credit for the recent attacks, criminal groups seeking financial compensation frequently attack schools in countryside locations where security is weak.

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

Although these criminals have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by financial gain, their increasing cooperation with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant cause of worry for authorities and security analysts alike.