🔗 Share this article

Gunmen have abducted over 300 schoolchildren and staff in what appears to be the most significant group abductions in recent Nigerian experience, according to a Christian organization on the weekend.

Escalating Emergency in Educational Facilities

The pre-dawn Friday attack on St Mary's co-educational school in western Nigeria happened just days after gunmen stormed a high school in neighboring Kebbi state, taking 25 girls.

Earlier accounts had stated 227 individuals were seized, but updated figures surfaced after a comprehensive counting process confirmed that 303 students and 12 instructors had been abducted.

The taken children, aged between eight and 18 years, constitute nearly half of the school's overall student population of 629.

Government Response and Security Actions

State officials have confirmed that intelligence agencies and law enforcement are presently conducting a comprehensive census to establish the exact number of missing people.

In response to the growing security concerns, the state government has directed the shutting of all schools in the state, with neighboring states adopting comparable preventive measures.

Furthermore, the national education ministry has directed the provisional shutting of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country.

President Bola Tinubu has cancelled overseas engagements, including participation at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on addressing the crisis.

Recent Security Incidents

The educational institution kidnappings represent the latest in a sequence of security incidents that have shaken the nation, including an assault on a place of worship in western Nigeria where assailants shot dead two people and seized numerous worshipers during a live-streamed service.

These events have taken place against the background of international focus on Nigeria's security 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 more than a ten years ago, with several of those girls still missing.

Firsthand Accounts

In a disturbing recording circulated by religious organizations, a upset worker described hearing the sounds of motorcycles and cars before hearing "forceful banging" on various entrances of the compound.

"Children were screaming," the staff member stated, recounting her fear while searching for keys to the section where the screaming was most intense.

The regional Catholic authority stated that the "attackers operated aggressively and without interruption for almost three hours, searching sleeping quarters."

Public Response and Fears

Meanwhile, about 600km away on the periphery of Abuja, concerned parents were collecting their students from educational institutions following the shutdown order.

One mother, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her shock at the magnitude of the kidnapping, asking how 300 children could be taken at once.

She concluded that the "authorities is not doing enough to curb the security crisis," and expressed approval for international assistance to "salvage this situation."

Continuing Safety Issues

For a long time, well-equipped criminal gangs have been conducting killings and abductions for money in rural areas of northern and middle Nigeria, where government control is limited.

While nobody has claimed responsibility for the latest incidents, criminal groups demanding ransom payments frequently attack schools in rural areas where security is weak.

These groups maintain camps in vast forest areas straddling multiple states in the west of Nigeria.

While these criminals have no ideological leanings and are mainly driven by monetary profit, their increasing alliance with jihadist groups from the northeastern region has become a major cause of concern for authorities and security analysts alike.