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Armed attackers have abducted more than 300 schoolchildren and staff in one of the biggest group abductions in recent Nigerian history, according to a religious organization on Saturday.

Escalating Crisis in Educational Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria happened just days after gunmen invaded a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, taking 25 female students.

Earlier accounts had stated 227 victims were seized, but updated figures surfaced after a thorough counting process established that 303 pupils and 12 instructors had been kidnapped.

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

Government Reaction and Security Actions

State officials have confirmed that security agencies and police are presently conducting a comprehensive census to establish the exact number of abducted people.

In response to the growing safety fears, the local authorities has directed the closure of every schools in the state, with neighboring states following comparable preventive steps.

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

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

Latest Security Events

The educational institution abductions represent the most recent in a sequence of security incidents that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a church in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two people and seized numerous worshipers during a live-streamed service.

These events have taken place against the backdrop of global focus on Nigeria's security situation.

Historical Context

Nigeria continues to be scarred by the legacy of the mass kidnapping of nearly 300 female students by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a decade ago, with several of those victims still missing.

Firsthand Accounts

In a disturbing video clip shared by Christian organizations, a upset worker recounted hearing the noise of bikes and cars before hearing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Students were weeping," the staff member reported, describing her terror while looking for keys to the section where the screaming was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "attackers acted aggressively and without interruption 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 children from schools following the shutdown order.

One mother, 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 "authorities is failing to act to combat the security crisis," and expressed support for international intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Continuing Security Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been conducting killings and kidnappings for money in rural areas of northwest and middle Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, criminal groups seeking ransom payments frequently target schools in rural areas where protection is weak.

These groups maintain camps in vast forest areas straddling multiple states in western Nigeria.

While these criminals have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their increasing alliance with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant cause of worry for authorities and security analysts alike.