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Gunmen have kidnapped in excess of 300 pupils and educators in what appears to be the biggest group abductions in recent Nigerian times, according to a Christian organization on Saturday.

Growing Crisis in School Facilities

The Friday morning assault on St Mary's mixed-gender school in western Nigeria came just a short time after gunmen stormed a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls.

Earlier reports had suggested 227 individuals were seized, but revised figures surfaced after a thorough verification exercise confirmed that 303 pupils and 12 educators had been kidnapped.

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

Official Reaction and Security Actions

State officials have announced that intelligence departments and police are currently performing a comprehensive head count to determine the exact number of abducted people.

In reaction to the increasing security concerns, the local authorities has ordered the shutting of all schools in the region, with neighboring states following similar precautionary actions.

Additionally, the national education ministry has directed the temporary shutting of 47 residential high schools across the country.

President Bola Tinubu has called off international engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on handling the situation.

Latest Security Events

The educational institution kidnappings constitute the latest in a sequence of security breaches that have rocked the country, including an attack on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two individuals and seized many worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Historical Background

Nigeria remains scarred by the legacy of the large-scale abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a ten years ago, with several of those victims still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a concerning video clip circulated by religious organizations, a distraught worker described hearing the noise of motorcycles and cars before hearing "forceful banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Children were crying," the staff member reported, describing her fear while searching for keys to the area where the crying was most intense.

The local Catholic authority stated that the "assailants operated violently and without interruption for almost three hours, moving through dormitories."

Citizen Response and Fears

At the same time, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, worried parents were collecting their children from schools following the shutdown directive.

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her disbelief at the magnitude of the kidnapping, asking how 300 children could be abducted simultaneously.

She stated that the "government is failing to act to curb the security crisis," and expressed approval for international assistance to "salvage this crisis."

Ongoing Security Issues

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

While no group has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks, criminal groups demanding ransom payments often target schools in rural areas where protection is inadequate.

These groups maintain bases in vast woodland areas straddling several states in western Nigeria.

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