🔗 Share this article

Armed attackers have abducted over 300 students and teachers in what appears to be the largest group abductions in recent Nigerian experience, as reported by a religious organization on the weekend.

Escalating Emergency in Educational Facilities

The Friday morning raid on St Mary's mixed-gender school in western Nigeria happened just days after armed men attacked a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls.

Initial accounts had suggested 227 victims were taken, but updated figures emerged after a comprehensive verification exercise determined that 303 pupils and 12 teachers had been abducted.

The kidnapped children, aged between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly 50 percent of the school's overall enrollment of 629.

Official Reaction and Safety Actions

Local officials have announced that security agencies and police are currently conducting a comprehensive assessment to determine the exact number of abducted people.

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

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

President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas commitments, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to concentrate on managing the crisis.

Recent Security Events

The educational institution kidnappings constitute the most recent in a series of safety incidents that have shaken the nation, including an assault on a church in the west of Nigeria where assailants shot dead two individuals and seized numerous worshipers during a online broadcast service.

These events have taken place against the background of global attention on Nigeria's security situation.

Past Background

Nigeria remains scarred by the legacy of the mass abduction of almost 300 female students by extremist group Boko Haram in Chibok more than a ten years ago, with several of those victims still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a disturbing recording shared by religious groups, a distraught employee described hearing the sounds of motorcycles and cars before experiencing "violent banging" on multiple gates of the school premises.

"Children were screaming," the witness stated, recounting her panic while looking for keys to the area where the screaming was loudest.

The local Catholic diocese confirmed that the "attackers acted violently and without interruption for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Citizen Reaction and Concerns

At the same time, about 600km away on the outskirts of Abuja, worried guardians were picking up their children from schools following the shutdown order.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her shock at the scale of the abduction, questioning how 300 students could be abducted at once.

She stated that the "government is not doing enough to address the security crisis," and expressed support for external assistance to "resolve this situation."

Ongoing Security Issues

For years, well-equipped criminal gangs have been carrying out killings and kidnappings for ransom in remote areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where government control is minimal.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the recent incidents, criminal groups seeking ransom payments often target schools in rural areas where security is inadequate.

These groups maintain camps in extensive forest areas spanning multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no ideological leanings and are primarily driven by monetary profit, their growing alliance with jihadist groups from the north-east has become a major cause of worry for officials and security analysts alike.