🔗 Share this article

Gunmen have abducted more than 300 students and teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in recent Nigerian times, as reported by a Christian organization on Saturday.

Escalating Crisis in Educational Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday assault on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state came just days after armed men stormed a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, taking 25 girls.

Initial reports had suggested 227 individuals were seized, but updated figures surfaced after a thorough verification exercise established that 303 students and 12 teachers had been abducted.

The abducted students, ranging between eight and 18 years, account for nearly half of the school's total enrollment of 629.

Government Response and Safety Measures

Local authorities have confirmed that intelligence agencies and police are currently performing a comprehensive assessment to verify the exact number of abducted individuals.

In reaction to the increasing security concerns, the state government has mandated the shutting of every schools in the region, with neighboring states following comparable precautionary measures.

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

President Bola Tinubu has called off overseas engagements, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on addressing the emergency.

Latest Security Events

The school abductions constitute the latest in a series of security breaches that have rocked the country, including an attack on a church in western Nigeria where assailants shot dead two people and abducted many congregation members during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Context

Nigeria continues to be scarred by the legacy of the mass kidnapping of almost 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a ten years ago, with some of those victims still unaccounted for.

Firsthand Testimonies

In a concerning video clip circulated by Christian groups, a distraught employee recounted hearing the noise of bikes and cars before experiencing "forceful banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Students were crying," the witness said, describing her terror while looking for keys to the area where the screaming was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "assailants operated violently and without interruption for nearly three hours, moving through sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Concerns

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, concerned parents were picking up their students from schools following the shutdown directive.

One parent, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her disbelief at the magnitude of the abduction, asking how 300 children could be abducted at once.

She stated that the "government is failing to act to combat insecurity," and expressed support for international intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Continuing Security Issues

For a long time, well-equipped bandit groups have been conducting murders and kidnappings for ransom in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where government control is limited.

While nobody has taken credit for the recent attacks, bandit gangs demanding ransom payments often attack schools in countryside locations where security is inadequate.

These gangs maintain camps in vast forest areas spanning multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these criminals have no political motives and are primarily driven by financial gain, their increasing cooperation with extremist groups from the northeastern region has become a major source of concern for authorities and experts alike.