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Gunmen have abducted in excess of 300 students and teachers in what is considered the biggest collective seizures in modern Nigerian history, as stated by a Christian organization on Saturday.

Escalating Crisis in Educational Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday assault 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 stated 227 individuals were taken, but new numbers surfaced after a thorough counting process established that 303 students and 12 instructors had been abducted.

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

Government Response and Safety Measures

Local authorities have stated that intelligence departments and law enforcement are presently performing a thorough assessment to establish the precise number of abducted people.

In reaction to the growing safety concerns, the local authorities has directed the shutting of every schools in the region, with neighboring states following comparable preventive steps.

Additionally, the federal education ministry has directed the provisional closure of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

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

Recent Violent Incidents

The school abductions constitute the most recent in a sequence of security breaches that have shaken the nation, including an attack on a place of worship in western Nigeria where gunmen shot dead two people and seized numerous congregation members during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Context

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the legacy of the large-scale abduction of almost 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a decade ago, with some of those victims still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a concerning video clip shared by Christian groups, a upset school staff member recounted hearing the noise of motorcycles and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Students were screaming," the witness stated, describing her fear while searching for access to the area where the screaming was most intense.

The local Catholic authority stated that the "assailants operated violently and uninterrupted for almost three hours, moving through sleeping quarters."

Public Response and Concerns

At the same time, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, concerned parents were collecting their children from educational institutions following the closure directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her shock at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 children could be abducted at once.

She stated that the "authorities is failing to act to address the security crisis," and expressed approval for external assistance to "resolve this crisis."

Continuing Security Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed bandit groups have been carrying out murders and kidnappings for ransom in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where state presence is minimal.

While nobody has taken credit for the latest attacks, bandit gangs demanding financial compensation often attack schools in rural areas where security is weak.

These groups maintain camps in extensive woodland areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

While these bandits have no political motives and are primarily motivated by financial gain, their growing cooperation with jihadist groups from the north-east has become a major source of concern for authorities and experts alike.