🔗 Share this article

Armed attackers have kidnapped over 300 schoolchildren and staff in what appears to be the largest group abductions in recent Nigerian history, as stated by a religious organization on Saturday.

Growing Emergency in Educational Institutions

The pre-dawn Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria came just days after armed men invaded a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, seizing 25 girls.

Earlier accounts had indicated 227 victims were seized, but updated numbers emerged after a comprehensive verification exercise established that 303 pupils and 12 teachers had been abducted.

The kidnapped pupils, aged between eight and 18 years, account for nearly half of the school's total student population of 629.

Official Reaction and Safety Measures

State officials have confirmed that intelligence departments and law enforcement are currently performing a comprehensive assessment to verify the precise number of missing individuals.

In response to the growing security fears, the state government has directed the closure of all schools in the region, with nearby states following similar precautionary steps.

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

President Bola Tinubu has postponed international engagements, including participation at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on managing the crisis.

Recent Violent Incidents

The school kidnappings constitute the most recent in a sequence of security breaches that have shaken the country, including an assault 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 backdrop of international focus on Nigeria's safety situation.

Past Context

Nigeria continues to be traumatized by the legacy of the large-scale kidnapping of nearly 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a decade ago, with some of those victims still missing.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a disturbing video clip shared by Christian groups, a distraught worker described hearing the noise of bikes and cars before hearing "forceful banging" on various gates of the compound.

"Children were screaming," the staff member reported, describing her panic while searching for access to the section where the crying was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "assailants operated violently and uninterrupted for almost three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, worried guardians were picking up their students from educational institutions following the shutdown directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her shock at the magnitude of the abduction, questioning how 300 children could be abducted simultaneously.

She concluded that the "authorities is failing to act to address the security crisis," and expressed support for external intervention to "resolve this situation."

Continuing Security Challenges

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

While nobody has taken credit for the recent attacks, bandit gangs seeking financial compensation often attack schools in countryside locations where protection is weak.

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

While these criminals have no political motives and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their growing cooperation with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a major cause of concern for officials and security analysts alike.