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The nearby states of Katsina and Plateau have ordered all schools shut as a precautionary measure.

The Catholic Church in the area said in a statement that "armed attackers invaded" the school between 1:00 am (0000 GMT) and 3:00 am, abducting pupils, students, teachers and a security guard, who was shot.

The Niger state government said it had "received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St. Mary's School in Agwara local government area".

"The exact number of abducted pupils is yet to be confirmed as security agencies continue to assess the situation," the state government secretary said in a statement.

After gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 schoolgirls, Friday's attack further raises alarm over security in Africa's most populous country.

For years, heavily armed criminal gangs locally known as "bandits" have been intensifying attacks in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria with little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom.

The gangs have camps in a vast forest straddling several states including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger from where they launch attacks.

In a statement on Friday, the Katsina state education ministry ordered "the immediate closure of all government schools across the state due to security concerns".

- 'Increased threat level' -

The Niger state government accused the Catholic school of defying orders to temporarily close all boarding schools in parts of the state following an intelligence report of an "increased threat level" in sections of northern Niger that border Kebbi.

Niger state police said its tactical units and the military were deployed to search for the pupils after "armed bandits invaded" the secondary school and "abducted a yet to be ascertained number of students from the school's hostel".

It said security agencies were "combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students".

President Bola Tinubu, whose government said earlier this week that security forces had been placed on high alert, has skipped the G20 summit in Johannesburg, his office said, to allow him to "attend to the security concerns in the country" and sent Vice President Kashim Shettima instead.

Tinubu has dispatched a defence minister to lead the search for the Kebbi school girls.

His office said minister of state for defence Alhaji Bello Matawalle had "experience in dealing with banditry and mass kidnapping", after he secured the release of 279 students aged between 10 and 17 who had been kidnapped from a secondary school in 2021 in northwestern Zamfara state.

In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, gunmen killed two people during a service that was recorded and broadcast online. Dozens of worshippers are believed to have been abducted.

As Nigeria grapples with security challenges on several fronts, hostage-taking has spiralled nationwide and become a favoured tactic of bandit gangs and jihadists.

Although bandits have no ideological leanings and are motivated by financial gain, their increasing alliance with jihadists from the northeast has been a source of concern for authorities and security analysts.

Jihadists have for 16 years been waging an insurrection in the northeast with the aim of establishing a Caliphate.

The jihadist violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million in the northeast since it erupted in 2019.

sn/cc