More than 300 students and teachers were abducted from a Nigerian school in one of the country’s largest mass kidnappings, a Christian group said on Saturday, adding to growing concerns about security in Africa’s most populous nation.

The early Friday raid on St Mary’s co-education school in Niger state, western Nigeria, followed another attack just days earlier, when gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state and abducted 25 girls.

It was earlier reported by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that 227 people had been seized in the attack, but a subsequent “verification exercise” concluded that 303 students and 12 teachers were kidnapped.

The missing boys and girls, who were aged between eight and 18 years, make up almost half of St Mary’s total student population of 629, AFP reported.

How is the government responding to the situation?

The Nigerian government has not yet commented on the exact number of students and teachers abducted from the school. However, Niger state governor Mohammed Umar Bago said on Saturday that the intelligence department and police are conducting a “head count.”

Governor Bago immediately ordered the closure of all schools in Niger state, with the government now focusing on rescuing the students and teachers. Nearby states have also implemented similar precautionary measures.

Furthermore, the national education ministry has also mandated the shutdown of 47 boarding secondary schools across the country. In a significant sign of the crisis’s gravity, President Bola Tinubu cancelled his international engagements, including his plans to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to focus on the domestic security situation.

Growing security fears and International pressure

The latest wave of abductions, including a separate assault on a church that left two people dead and dozens kidnapped, comes after US President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he described as the killing of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.

The US has continued to apply pressure, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urging Abuja to “take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians,” during talks with Nigerian National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Nigeria remains scarred by the memory of the abduction of roughly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok, in northeastern Borno state, more than a decade ago, with some of them still missing.

In a video clip shared by CAN, an unidentified staff of St Mary’s recalled hearing the sounds of motorcycles and cars before “there was a serious bang, bang on different gates of the compound.”

“Children were crying,” she said, describing her panic while looking for keys to the section where the sound of cries were the loudest. During the commotion, a security guard was heard groaning, and after some tim,e she heard the gang driving away.

The “attackers operated aggressively and without interruption for nearly three hours, moving through dormitories,” the local Catholic diocese told AFP.

Rising security challenges

In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, two people were killed during a service that was being broadcast online. Dozens of worshippers are believed to have been kidnapped by the gunmen.

For years, heavily armed criminal groups, often referred to as bandits, have terrorised northwest and central Nigeria, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom in rural areas where state presence is minimal.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the recent attacks but these bandit gangs seeking ransom payments often target schools in rural areas due to their low security.

Although these criminal gangs are motivated by financial gain rather than ideological leanings, their growing ties with jihadists from the northeast have raised concerns among authorities and security analysts, AFP reported.