Police Appeals For Pictures Of Abducted Girl.More Pictures Of Those that Escaped

four of the schools girls that escaped from the abductors

 

Police in Nigeria have appealed to parents of more than 200 abducted schoolgirls to come forward with photographs of their daughters.

The girls were taken from their school in Borno state by suspected Islamist militants more than two weeks ago.

Borno state's police chief told the BBC that the authorities needed to confirm exactly who was missing as the school records had been burned in the attack.

He said it was now thought that 223 girls were still missing.”

Tanko Lawan, Borno state's police commissioner, said the headmistress of the school in Chibok had been working to produce a list of those believed to have been taking their final year exams.

Her task had been hampered as students from surrounding areas had also come to the school to take the exams as it was believed the town was relatively safe from attack.

He said current figures showed that 53 of the girls were believed to have escaped.

But he added that it was difficult to know for sure, as some parents may not have informed the authorities if their daughters had returned home.

"That's why we're appealing to parents to come with their photographs so that we know actually [that] these are the numbers we are dealing with," he told the BBC Hausa service.

Since the kidnapping, the number of missing girls has been disputed and parents have criticised the government's search and rescue efforts.

Earlier this week, a community leader in Chibok said that 230 girls were missing - a significantly higher figure than officials had been quoting - and 43 had escaped.

It is thought that the militants initially took the girls to the Sambisa forest; there have been subsequent reports they have been taken over the borders into Chad and Cameroon and possibly forced to "marry" the insurgents.

Swathes of north-eastern Nigeria are, in effect, off limits to the army, allowing the militants to move the girls with impunity, says the BBC's Will Ross in Abuja.