Nigeria's police have offered a $300,000 (£177,000) reward to anyone who can help locate and rescue more than 200 abducted schoolgirls.
They were kidnapped more than three weeks ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants from their boarding school in the north-eastern state of Borno.
Eleven other girls were taken on Sunday night after two villages were attacked.
Another militant raid on a town near Cameroon killed some 300 people on Monday, a senator has told the BBC.
Ahmed Zanna said the gunmen arrived in a convoy of vans in Gamboru Ngala during the town's busy market day.
They stole food and motorbikes, burned hundreds of cars and buildings during their rampage, the politician told the BBC's Hausa service.
It is the latest attack to be blamed on Boko Haram, whose leader admitted earlier this week that his fighters had abducted the girls in the middle of the night from their school in the town of Chibok on 14 April.
Abubakar Shekau threatened to "sell" the students, saying they should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married.
The group, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, began its insurgency in 2009.
More than 1,500 have been killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone.'Heart-breaking'
A statement from the police said the 50m naira reward would be given to anyone who "volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students".
Six telephone numbers are provided, calling on the general public to be "part of the solution to the present security challenge".
"The police high command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality," the statement said.
The abductions have prompted widespread criticism of the Nigerian government and demonstrations countrywide.
The BBC's Mansur Liman in the capital, Abuja, says many are questioning why it has taken so long for such a reward to be offered.
The girls are mostly aged between 16 and 18 and were taking their final year exams.
The governments of Chad and Cameroon have denied suggestions that the abducted girls may have already been smuggled over Nigeria's porous borders into their territory.
A team of US experts has been sent to Nigeria to help in the hunt.
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama described the abductions as "heart-breaking" and "outrageous" and said he hoped the kidnapping might galvanise the international community to take action against Boko Haram.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will be speaking by phone to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday afternoon regarding the abductions.
Security has been tightened in Abuja as several African leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are attending the World Economic Forum for Africa in the city, following two recent attacks there blamed on the insurgents.
BBC
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Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Video - Boko Haram threatens to sell kidnapped school girls
The leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is threatening to sell the nearly 300 teenage schoolgirls abducted from a school in the remote northeast three weeks ago, in a new videotape received Monday.
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Boko Haram kidnap eight more schoolgirls in Nigeria
Members of Boko Haram have allegedly kidnapped eight more girls aged 12 to 15 years from the northeastern Nigerian village of Warabe, hours after the armed group claimed responsibility for abducting nearly 300 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok, police and residents have said.
A police source, who could not be named, said on Tuesday that the eight girls were taken away overnight on trucks, along with looted livestock and food.
"They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army colour. They started shooting in our village," said Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe.
In a video released on Monday, the armed group threatened to sell the 276 girls abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in Chibok "in the marketplace".
Boko Haram's leader Abubaker Shekau criticised the female students for being taught "western education", which the group is avidly against.
He also warned that his group planned to attack more schools and abduct more girls.
UN warning
He said the girls, some as young as nine-years-old, would be sold for marriage, stating that "God has commanded me to sell".
The statement prompted a warning from the United Nations against "slavery" or "sexual slavery".
"We warn the perpetrators that there is an absolute prohibition against slavery and sexual slavery in international law. These can under certain circumstances constitute crimes against humanity," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
"That means anyone responsible can be arrested, charged, prosecuted, and jailed at any time in the future. So just
because they think they are safe now, they won't necessarily be in two years, five years or 10 years time," he said.
He also urged Nigeria's federal and local authorities to work together to rescue the girls.
On Sunday night, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his administration was doing everything possible to ensure the schoolgirls were released.
Aljazeera
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A police source, who could not be named, said on Tuesday that the eight girls were taken away overnight on trucks, along with looted livestock and food.
"They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army colour. They started shooting in our village," said Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe.
In a video released on Monday, the armed group threatened to sell the 276 girls abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in Chibok "in the marketplace".
Boko Haram's leader Abubaker Shekau criticised the female students for being taught "western education", which the group is avidly against.
He also warned that his group planned to attack more schools and abduct more girls.
UN warning
He said the girls, some as young as nine-years-old, would be sold for marriage, stating that "God has commanded me to sell".
The statement prompted a warning from the United Nations against "slavery" or "sexual slavery".
"We warn the perpetrators that there is an absolute prohibition against slavery and sexual slavery in international law. These can under certain circumstances constitute crimes against humanity," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
"That means anyone responsible can be arrested, charged, prosecuted, and jailed at any time in the future. So just
because they think they are safe now, they won't necessarily be in two years, five years or 10 years time," he said.
He also urged Nigeria's federal and local authorities to work together to rescue the girls.
On Sunday night, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his administration was doing everything possible to ensure the schoolgirls were released.
Aljazeera
Related stories: Video - President Goodluck Jonathan makes public address on kidnapped schoolgirls
US to help Nigerian government rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
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Monday, May 5, 2014
Video - President Goodluck Jonathan makes public address on kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, makes his first comments about the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists three weeks ago. There has been growing public anger at the way the government has reacted to the mass kidnapping. Speaking during a televised debate, Jonathan promised the parents of the missing children that the government would rescue them. 'We promise that wherever these girls are, we will surely get them out,' he said.
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US to help Nigerian government rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
US Secretary of State John Kerry has vowed that Washington will do "everything possible" to help Nigeria deal with the armed group Boko Haram, following the kidnapping of scores of schoolgirls.
"Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime," Kerry said in a policy speech in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday.
"We will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice. That is our responsibility and the world's responsibility," Kerry said.
The US, he said, was "working to strengthen Nigeria's institutions and its military to combat Boko Haram's campaign of terror and violence".
The schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen from the Chibok Government Girls' Secondary School school in Nigeria's Borno state on Tuesday last week.
Nigerian police on Friday said Boko Haram was holding 223 girls of the 276 seized from the school, revising upwards the number of youngsters abducted.
The girls' abduction has triggered global outrage and prompted protests in a number of Nigerian cities, as desperate parents call on the government to secure their release.
More than 200 people also held a rally on Saturday in front of Washington's Lincoln Memorial to bring attention to the girls' plight.
'No effort' to rescue girls
Nigerian mothers on Saturday vowed to hold more protests to push for a greater rescue effort from the authorities.
"We need to sustain the message and the pressure on political and military authorities to do everything in their power to ensure these girls are freed," Nigerian protest organiser Hadiza Bala Usman told AFP.
She said that women and mothers would on Tuesday march to the offices of the defence minister and chief of defence staff "to ask them what they are doing to rescue our daughters".
"We believe there is little or no effort for now on the part of the military and government to rescue these abducted girls, who are languishing in some dingy forest," she said.
Nigeria's information minister, Labaran Maku, said on Friday that Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, had chaired a top-level meeting with military and security chiefs about a possible rescue mission.
The mass kidnapping is one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram's five-year offensive, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country, including 1,500 people this year alone.
Boko Haram, an armed group whose name means "Western education is sinful", is fighting what it calls Western influence and wants to form an Islamic state in Africa's largest oil producer country.
AFP
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Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown requests UK military assist in finding kidnapped girls
"Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime," Kerry said in a policy speech in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday.
"We will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice. That is our responsibility and the world's responsibility," Kerry said.
The US, he said, was "working to strengthen Nigeria's institutions and its military to combat Boko Haram's campaign of terror and violence".
The schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen from the Chibok Government Girls' Secondary School school in Nigeria's Borno state on Tuesday last week.
Nigerian police on Friday said Boko Haram was holding 223 girls of the 276 seized from the school, revising upwards the number of youngsters abducted.
The girls' abduction has triggered global outrage and prompted protests in a number of Nigerian cities, as desperate parents call on the government to secure their release.
More than 200 people also held a rally on Saturday in front of Washington's Lincoln Memorial to bring attention to the girls' plight.
'No effort' to rescue girls
Nigerian mothers on Saturday vowed to hold more protests to push for a greater rescue effort from the authorities.
"We need to sustain the message and the pressure on political and military authorities to do everything in their power to ensure these girls are freed," Nigerian protest organiser Hadiza Bala Usman told AFP.
She said that women and mothers would on Tuesday march to the offices of the defence minister and chief of defence staff "to ask them what they are doing to rescue our daughters".
"We believe there is little or no effort for now on the part of the military and government to rescue these abducted girls, who are languishing in some dingy forest," she said.
Nigeria's information minister, Labaran Maku, said on Friday that Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, had chaired a top-level meeting with military and security chiefs about a possible rescue mission.
The mass kidnapping is one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram's five-year offensive, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country, including 1,500 people this year alone.
Boko Haram, an armed group whose name means "Western education is sinful", is fighting what it calls Western influence and wants to form an Islamic state in Africa's largest oil producer country.
AFP
Related stories: Video - Nigerian government set up plan to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown requests UK military assist in finding kidnapped girls
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