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Gunmen have kidnapped over 300 schoolchildren and staff in one of the largest mass kidnappings in modern Nigerian times, as reported by a Christian organization on Saturday.

Escalating Crisis in Educational Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state occurred just days after armed men invaded a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, abducting 25 female students.

Initial accounts had stated 227 victims were seized, but new numbers emerged after a detailed assessment determined that 303 students and 12 teachers had been abducted.

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

Official Reaction and Security Actions

State authorities have confirmed that security departments and law enforcement are currently performing a comprehensive census to verify the precise number of missing people.

In reaction to the growing safety fears, the state government has mandated the shutting of every schools in the state, with neighboring states adopting comparable precautionary measures.

Additionally, the federal education ministry has ordered the provisional shutting 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 addressing the emergency.

Latest Violent Events

The school abductions constitute the latest in a series of safety incidents that have rocked the nation, including an assault on a church in the west of Nigeria where assailants killed two individuals and abducted dozens congregation members during a online broadcast service.

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

Historical Context

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the memory of the large-scale abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a decade ago, with some of those victims still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Testimonies

In a concerning recording shared by Christian groups, a upset school staff member described hearing the sounds of bikes and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on multiple gates of the compound.

"Children were weeping," the staff member stated, recounting her terror while searching for access to the area where the crying was loudest.

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

Public Reaction and Concerns

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned parents were collecting their children from schools following the shutdown order.

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

She stated that the "government is not doing enough to curb the security crisis," and voiced support for external intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Continuing Security Challenges

For a long time, heavily armed bandit groups have been conducting murders and abductions for ransom in rural areas of northwest and middle Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While nobody has taken credit for the latest attacks, bandit gangs demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in countryside locations where security is inadequate.

These groups maintain camps in vast woodland areas spanning multiple states in western Nigeria.

While these criminals have no political motives and are mainly driven by financial gain, their increasing alliance with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant cause of worry for authorities and experts alike.