(REUTERS) It was mid-morning when Aduke Balogun noticed a masked man in military fatigues walking towards her children's school. Minutes later, gunfire erupted, more gunmen appeared and residents fled.

In the chaos, her six-year-old daughter Feranmi managed to escape but another daughter, eight-year-old Kausarat, was not so lucky - one of more than 30 students and a teacher seized and spirited into the bush near Yawota, a town in southwest Nigeria's Oyo state.

Just opposite the school, Aduke Balogun looks towards the compound where her daughter was abducted.

“I play the role of both parents in the life of my children. I travelled down to this community for survival. We want our children back alive,” said Balogun, 35, a petty trader and mother of five, her voice breaking as she sat outside her home about 100 metres from Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota, Oyo State.

Weeks after the kidnapping of schoolchildren in Oyo State, food flasks remain on the classroom floor. School bags, books and scattered naira notes lie abandoned, frozen reminders of the morning gunmen stormed the school and fled into the bush with their captives.

The May 15 raid - and simultaneous attacks on two other nearby schools - have jolted a region long seen as relatively safe compared to more unstable regions further north, fuelling fears that kidnapping-for-ransom gangs are expanding their operations far beyond traditional hotspots.

Widespread kidnappings and the ever expanding presence of armed groups across Nigeria - Africa's most populous country - are likely to be key issues in the run up to Nigeria’s next national elections in January.

Balogun's daughter is among children and teachers still missing following the abduction.

Nigeria has struggled for years with armed groups who kidnap villagers, motorists, clerics and schoolchildren for ransom. While such attacks have long traumatized communities in the north, they have been rare in the southwest.

That distinction now appears to be eroding.

Around the same time, gunmen attacked other schools in nearby Ahoro-Esinele, further heightening fears across Oyo State.

The attacks have unsettled Yawota and surrounding farming communities in Oriire Local Government Area, where patchy security, limited electricity and weak mobile phone networks can make it difficult to call for help.

Police say efforts to secure the captives’ release are ongoing.

“There’s communication, and the communication is progressing, but I will tell you that we are not sparing any effort, we are not resting on our oars,” said Oyo police spokesperson Olayinka Ayanlade. Officials have urged families to remain calm, but relatives say they simply want their children returned.

Balogun said she first noticed a masked man in military-style clothing near the school before he began shooting. Others followed, dressed similarly. Her younger daughter managed to escape, but her older child did not. For Balogun, the agonising wait continues each day. She said she has not watched videos circulating online of the abducted children.

“I see other people watching them but I can't bear to watch.”

Nearby, women sit together under a tree, each with at least one child still missing.

Posted by: Alma Angeles/NET25 News