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Gunmen have seized more than 300 students and teachers in what appears to be the most significant group abductions in modern Nigerian history, as stated by a religious organization on Saturday.

Escalating Emergency in School Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday attack on St Mary's mixed-gender school in Niger state happened just a short time after gunmen invaded a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, taking 25 female students.

Earlier accounts had indicated 227 victims were taken, but updated numbers surfaced after a detailed verification exercise confirmed that 303 pupils and 12 instructors had been abducted.

The abducted children, ranging between eight and 18 years, represent nearly 50 percent of the school's overall student population of 629.

Official Reaction and Security Actions

Local authorities have announced that intelligence departments and law enforcement are presently conducting a thorough head count to establish the precise number of abducted people.

In reaction to the growing security concerns, the local authorities has mandated the closure of every schools in the region, with nearby states following comparable precautionary actions.

Furthermore, the federal education department has directed the provisional shutting of 47 boarding secondary schools throughout the country.

President Bola Tinubu has called off overseas commitments, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on managing the emergency.

Latest Violent Events

The school kidnappings represent the most recent in a series of security breaches that have rocked the country, including an assault on a place of worship in western Nigeria where assailants killed two people and abducted numerous worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Historical Background

Nigeria continues to be traumatized 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 girls still missing.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a concerning recording shared by Christian groups, a upset employee recounted hearing the noise of motorcycles and cars before hearing "forceful banging" on multiple entrances of the school premises.

"Students were crying," the witness said, describing her fear while looking for keys to the area where the screaming was loudest.

The local Catholic diocese confirmed that the "assailants acted violently and uninterrupted for almost three hours, moving through dormitories."

Public Response and Concerns

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

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

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

Ongoing Security Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been carrying out killings and kidnappings for money in rural areas of northern and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While no group has taken credit for the recent attacks, bandit gangs seeking ransom payments often attack schools in rural areas where security is inadequate.

These groups maintain bases in vast forest areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no ideological leanings and are mainly motivated by monetary profit, their increasing alliance with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant cause of concern for officials and security analysts alike.