Many countries are supporting Nigeria to help find over 220 schoolgirls kidnapped last week by an extreme Islamist group. The USA, China, France, Britain and Canada are helping Nigeria's government to locate the missing girls. The group Boko Haram kidnapped the girls and said it would sell them. U.S. president Barack Obama said the kidnapping was "heartbreaking" and "outrageous". The American military is now in Nigeria to hunt for the children. China has promised technical help. One of Egypt's top Islamic universities said harming the girls "contradicts" Islam.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for going to school, expressed her shock at the kidnappings. She said: "These girls are my sisters, and I am feeling very sad." She told them: "Never lose hope because we are with you." She compared the kidnapping to her hometown of Swat, Pakistan. She said: "In Swat, we were suffering. Girls were banned from going to school and banned from going to market…They were in schools trying to study, thinking about their future, and then suddenly some people came and abducted them." She called it "another kind of terrorism".