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Armed attackers have kidnapped more than 300 students and teachers in what is considered the most significant collective seizures in recent Nigerian times, according to a Christian organization on the weekend.

Growing Crisis in Educational Facilities

The Friday morning raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria happened just a short time after armed men invaded a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, taking 25 young women.

Initial reports had suggested 227 individuals were taken, but revised numbers emerged after a comprehensive assessment determined that 303 students and 12 educators had been kidnapped.

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

Official Reaction and Security Measures

State officials have confirmed that intelligence agencies and police are presently performing a thorough assessment to establish the exact number of missing individuals.

In response to the increasing security concerns, the local authorities has mandated the closure of all schools in the region, with neighboring states adopting similar preventive steps.

Furthermore, the national education ministry has ordered the provisional shutting of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

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

Latest Violent Incidents

The school abductions constitute the most recent in a sequence of security incidents that have rocked the country, including an assault on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two people and abducted dozens worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Context

Nigeria remains scarred by the legacy of the mass kidnapping of almost 300 schoolgirls by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a decade ago, with some of those victims still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a concerning video clip circulated by religious groups, a upset employee described hearing the sounds of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on various gates of the compound.

"Students were screaming," the staff member reported, recounting her panic while looking for access to the area where the screaming was most intense.

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

Public Response and Concerns

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried guardians were collecting their students from educational institutions following the closure order.

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

She concluded that the "authorities is not doing enough to combat the security crisis," and voiced support for international intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Ongoing Security Issues

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

While nobody has taken credit for the recent incidents, criminal groups seeking ransom payments frequently target schools in rural areas where security is inadequate.

These gangs maintain bases in extensive woodland areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

While these bandits have no ideological leanings and are primarily motivated by financial gain, their increasing cooperation with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant source of concern for authorities and security analysts alike.