🔗 Share this article

Armed attackers have abducted more than 300 students and teachers in what is considered the most significant group abductions in modern Nigerian history, as reported by a Christian organization on the weekend.

Growing Emergency in School Institutions

The Friday morning attack on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria happened just days after gunmen attacked a secondary school in adjacent Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls.

Initial reports had suggested 227 victims were taken, but revised numbers surfaced after a detailed assessment confirmed that 303 pupils and 12 teachers had been abducted.

The abducted children, ranging 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 confirmed that security agencies and police are presently conducting a thorough head count to verify the precise number of missing individuals.

In response to the increasing safety concerns, the local authorities has directed the shutting of every schools in the state, with neighboring states adopting similar preventive measures.

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

President Bola Tinubu has cancelled international commitments, including attendance at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on addressing the crisis.

Latest Security Events

The educational institution abductions represent the most recent in a series of safety incidents that have rocked the nation, including an assault on a church in the west of Nigeria where gunmen killed two people and seized dozens congregation members during a online broadcast service.

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

Past Context

Nigeria remains traumatized by the memory of the mass abduction of nearly 300 female students by jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok over a ten years ago, with some of those girls still unaccounted for.

Eyewitness Accounts

In a disturbing recording circulated by religious groups, a upset school staff member described hearing the noise of bikes and cars before experiencing "violent banging" on multiple entrances of the compound.

"Children were screaming," the witness stated, describing her terror while looking for keys to the section where the screaming was loudest.

The regional Catholic authority confirmed that the "assailants operated aggressively and without interruption for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories."

Public Reaction and Fears

At the same time, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, worried parents were collecting their students from schools following the shutdown directive.

One mother, a 40-year-old healthcare worker, voiced her disbelief at the scale of the abduction, asking how 300 children could be taken simultaneously.

She stated that the "government is not doing enough to curb the security crisis," and voiced approval for external assistance to "resolve this situation."

Continuing Security Issues

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

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks, criminal groups seeking ransom payments frequently target schools in countryside locations where security is weak.

These groups maintain camps in extensive forest areas straddling several states in the west of Nigeria.

Although these bandits have no political motives and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their increasing cooperation with jihadist groups from the north-east has become a major cause of worry for authorities and experts alike.