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Gunmen have seized over 300 pupils and educators in one of the largest mass kidnappings in recent Nigerian history, as stated by a religious organization on Saturday.

Growing Crisis in School Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday assault on St Mary's mixed-gender school in Niger state came just days after gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, taking 25 young women.

Earlier accounts had suggested 227 individuals were taken, but new numbers surfaced after a comprehensive verification exercise confirmed that 303 students and 12 educators had been kidnapped.

The taken children, ranging between eight and 18 years, represent nearly 50 percent of the school's total student population of 629.

Official Reaction and Safety Actions

State officials have confirmed that security departments and law enforcement are currently performing a thorough assessment to determine the exact number of missing people.

In reaction to the growing security fears, the local authorities has ordered the shutting of all schools in the state, with nearby states adopting similar precautionary steps.

Additionally, the federal education department has ordered the temporary closure of 47 residential high schools throughout the country.

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

Recent Security Events

The school kidnappings constitute the most recent in a series of security incidents that have shaken the nation, including an attack on a church in western Nigeria where assailants shot dead two individuals and seized dozens worshipers during a online broadcast service.

These events have occurred against the background of global focus on Nigeria's safety situation.

Past Background

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the memory of the large-scale kidnapping of nearly 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 religious organizations, a distraught worker described hearing the noise of bikes and cars before hearing "violent banging" on various entrances of the compound.

"Students were crying," the witness stated, recounting her terror while looking for access to the section where the crying was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "assailants acted aggressively and uninterrupted for almost three hours, searching dormitories."

Citizen Response and Fears

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

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

She concluded that the "authorities is failing to act to combat insecurity," and voiced support for international assistance to "resolve this situation."

Continuing Security Issues

For years, heavily armed bandit groups have been conducting murders and kidnappings for ransom in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where state presence is limited.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the latest incidents, criminal groups demanding financial compensation frequently target schools in rural areas where protection is inadequate.

These groups maintain bases in vast forest areas spanning multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

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