🔗 Share this article

Gunmen have abducted more than 300 pupils and educators in what appears to be the most significant mass kidnappings in modern Nigerian history, as reported by a religious organization on Saturday.

Growing Crisis in Educational Facilities

The early Friday assault on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria occurred just a short time after gunmen invaded a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, taking 25 girls.

Initial accounts had indicated 227 victims were taken, but revised figures were released after a thorough counting process determined that 303 pupils and 12 teachers had been kidnapped.

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

Official Response and Safety Actions

Local officials have stated that intelligence agencies and law enforcement are presently conducting a comprehensive assessment to establish the precise number of missing individuals.

In response to the growing security fears, the state government has directed the closure of every schools in the region, with nearby states adopting comparable preventive measures.

Additionally, the federal education ministry has ordered the temporary closure of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country.

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

Latest Security Incidents

The school abductions represent the latest in a sequence of security breaches that have rocked the nation, including an attack on a place of worship in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two people and abducted many worshipers during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Background

Nigeria remains scarred by the legacy of the large-scale kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a decade ago, with some of those victims still missing.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a concerning video clip shared by religious groups, a distraught employee recounted hearing the sounds of bikes and cars before experiencing "violent banging" on various entrances of the school premises.

"Students were screaming," the witness said, describing her fear while looking for access to the section where the screaming was most intense.

The local Catholic diocese stated that the "attackers operated aggressively and uninterrupted for nearly three hours, moving through sleeping quarters."

Citizen Response and Concerns

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

One parent, a 40-year-old nurse, expressed her disbelief at the scale of the abduction, questioning how 300 children could be taken at once.

She concluded that the "government is not doing enough to address insecurity," and expressed approval for external intervention to "salvage this crisis."

Continuing Security Issues

For a long time, heavily armed criminal gangs have been carrying out murders and kidnappings for ransom in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the recent incidents, bandit gangs seeking ransom payments often attack schools in rural areas where protection is inadequate.

These gangs maintain camps in vast forest areas spanning multiple states in western Nigeria.

While these bandits have no political motives and are mainly driven by financial gain, their growing alliance with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a significant source of worry for officials and security analysts alike.