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Armed attackers have seized over 300 schoolchildren and staff in what appears to be the biggest mass kidnappings in recent Nigerian times, as reported by a religious organization on Saturday.

Escalating Crisis in School Institutions

The early Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria happened just a short time after gunmen invaded a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 female students.

Initial accounts had suggested 227 individuals were taken, but new numbers emerged after a thorough assessment established that 303 students and 12 teachers had been abducted.

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

Official Reaction and Safety Actions

State authorities have stated that intelligence agencies and police are currently performing a thorough head count to determine the precise number of abducted people.

In response to the growing security fears, the state government has ordered the closure of all schools in the state, with neighboring states adopting similar precautionary actions.

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

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

Latest Violent Events

The school kidnappings constitute the most recent in a sequence of security breaches that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a place of worship in western Nigeria where gunmen shot dead two people and abducted many worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Historical Context

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the legacy of the mass abduction of almost 300 female students by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with several of those victims still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a disturbing recording circulated by religious organizations, a distraught school staff member described hearing the noise of motorcycles and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on multiple gates of the school premises.

"Students were crying," the staff member reported, recounting her terror while looking for keys to the area where the screaming was loudest.

The regional Catholic diocese confirmed that the "attackers operated violently and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Citizen Reaction and Fears

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried parents were picking up their students from educational institutions following the closure directive.

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 children could be taken at once.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to address the security crisis," and voiced approval for external assistance to "resolve this situation."

Continuing Security Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been carrying out murders and abductions for ransom in remote areas of northwest and middle Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the latest incidents, bandit gangs demanding financial compensation often target schools in countryside locations where security is weak.

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

Although these criminals have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by financial gain, their growing cooperation with jihadist groups from the north-east has become a major cause of concern for authorities and security analysts alike.