As hostage negotiation specialists head to Nigeria to track down 276 kidnapped schoolgirls a social media campaign is spreading across the world to demand their safe return.
Celebrities and public figures including US First Lady Michelle Obama, US politician Hillary Clinton and supermodel Naomi Campbell have taken to Twitter to demand the release of the schoolgirls.
Michelle Obama said: "Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families."
On social media network Twitter the message #BringBackOurGirls is trending globally as countries including the UK, France, China and the US lend their support to Nigeria.
On April 14 276 girls were abducted from a boarding school in the village of Chibok in Borno state, north Nigeria.
Islamist terror organization Boko Haram claimed responsibility and its leader, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to sell the girls "on the market".
Many people in Nigeria are angry at the government's response and have said that not enough has been done.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has been criticised for not doing enough to track down the girls, who are thought to be being held captive in Sambisa forest in the northeast of the country.
Reportedly, some of the girls have already been trafficked to neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.
Following public outrage President Jonathan has stated that the kidnapping will mark the "beginning of the end" of terrorism in his country. However, this will be little consolation for the hundreds of families without their daughters.
Violent group Boko Haram is thought to be behind the killing of up to 300 people reported to have been killed recently in the North-Eastern Nigerian town of Gamboru Ngala.
Prime Minister David Cameron has described the kidnapping as "an act of pure evil".
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