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Armed attackers have seized over 300 pupils and educators in what appears to be the most significant collective seizures in recent Nigerian times, according to a Christian organization on the weekend.

Escalating Emergency in Educational Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday assault on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria came just a short time after gunmen invaded a high school in adjacent Kebbi state, seizing 25 young women.

Initial reports had stated 227 individuals were taken, but updated figures were released after a comprehensive counting process determined that 303 students and 12 teachers had been abducted.

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

Government Response and Security Measures

Local officials have stated that intelligence agencies and police are presently performing a comprehensive assessment to determine the precise number of missing people.

In response to the growing safety fears, the local authorities has mandated the closure of all schools in the region, with neighboring states adopting similar preventive actions.

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

President Bola Tinubu has cancelled international engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on addressing the emergency.

Latest Violent Incidents

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

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

Historical Context

Nigeria remains traumatized by the memory of the large-scale abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a decade ago, with some of those girls still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a concerning video clip shared by religious organizations, a upset employee described hearing the noise of motorcycles and vehicles before hearing "violent banging" on multiple entrances of the compound.

"Children were screaming," the witness stated, recounting her fear while searching for keys to the section where the screaming was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "assailants acted aggressively and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Reaction and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, concerned guardians were picking up their students from schools following the closure order.

One parent, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her disbelief at the scale of the kidnapping, questioning how 300 students could be taken at once.

She concluded that the "government is failing to act to address the security crisis," and expressed support for external assistance to "salvage this situation."

Ongoing Security Issues

For a long time, well-equipped criminal gangs have been conducting killings and abductions for ransom in remote areas of northern and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the recent incidents, bandit gangs demanding ransom payments frequently attack schools in countryside locations where protection is weak.

These groups maintain camps in vast forest areas straddling multiple states in western Nigeria.

While these criminals have no political motives and are primarily motivated by monetary profit, their increasing alliance with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a major source of worry for authorities and experts alike.