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

Growing Emergency in Educational Institutions

The early Friday attack on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria occurred just a short time after armed men attacked a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, seizing 25 girls.

Earlier reports had stated 227 individuals were seized, but new figures were released after a detailed counting process established that 303 students and 12 educators had been abducted.

The taken children, aged between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly half of the school's overall student population of 629.

Official Reaction and Security Measures

Local authorities have announced that security departments and police are currently performing a comprehensive assessment to determine the exact number of missing individuals.

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

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

President Bola Tinubu has called off overseas engagements, including participation at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on addressing the emergency.

Latest Violent Incidents

The school abductions constitute the most recent in a series of security incidents that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a place of worship in western Nigeria where assailants shot dead two individuals and abducted many worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Background

Nigeria continues to be scarred by the memory of the mass abduction of almost 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with some of those victims still missing.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a concerning recording shared by religious groups, a upset school staff member described hearing the sounds of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Children were screaming," the witness said, recounting her panic while looking for keys to the section where the screaming was most intense.

The regional Catholic authority stated that the "attackers operated aggressively and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Public Reaction and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried parents were picking up their students from educational institutions following the shutdown directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, expressed her shock at the magnitude of the kidnapping, asking how 300 children could be abducted simultaneously.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to address insecurity," and expressed support for international assistance to "salvage this crisis."

Continuing Safety Challenges

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

While no group has taken credit for the latest incidents, criminal groups demanding financial compensation often attack schools in countryside locations where protection is inadequate.

These groups maintain bases in extensive woodland areas straddling multiple states in western Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no political motives and are primarily driven by financial gain, their growing alliance with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant source of worry for officials and experts alike.