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Gunmen have kidnapped more than 300 pupils and educators in what is considered the most significant collective seizures in modern Nigerian times, as reported by a religious organization on Saturday.

Escalating Emergency in Educational Institutions

The Friday morning raid on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state came just days after armed men stormed a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, seizing 25 young women.

Earlier accounts had indicated 227 victims were taken, but updated numbers were released after a detailed counting process determined that 303 students and 12 teachers had been abducted.

The abducted students, ranging between eight and 18 years, account for nearly half of the school's overall enrollment of 629.

Official Response and Safety Actions

State officials have announced that intelligence agencies and police are currently conducting a thorough head count to determine the precise number of missing people.

In reaction to the growing security concerns, the local authorities has ordered the shutting of every schools in the region, with neighboring states adopting similar preventive actions.

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

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas commitments, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on managing the situation.

Recent Security Incidents

The school kidnappings represent the most recent in a series of security incidents that have rocked the country, including an assault on a place of worship in western Nigeria where gunmen shot dead two individuals and abducted many worshipers during a live-streamed 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 large-scale kidnapping of almost 300 female students by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a decade ago, with some of those girls still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a disturbing video clip circulated by religious organizations, a frightened employee described hearing the sounds of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on multiple entrances of the school premises.

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

The local Catholic diocese confirmed that the "assailants acted violently and without interruption for nearly three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Concerns

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

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the magnitude of the kidnapping, asking how 300 children could be taken at once.

She stated that the "authorities is not doing enough to combat the security crisis," and expressed support for international assistance to "salvage this crisis."

Ongoing Safety Challenges

For a long time, well-equipped bandit groups have been carrying out murders and kidnappings for ransom in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While no group has taken credit for the recent incidents, criminal groups demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in rural areas where protection is inadequate.

These groups maintain camps in vast woodland areas straddling multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no ideological leanings and are primarily driven by monetary profit, their increasing cooperation with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a major cause of concern for officials and experts alike.