Nigerian abducted girls' families fast losing hope of rescue

The families of more than 230 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist insurgents more than 10 days ago say they are fast losing hope of seeing their daughters again despite government assurances they will be found.

The mass abduction of the girls watched over by government soldiers is the most devastating in a series of recent attacks on state schools – and comes as the government debates extending a year-long state of emergency across three north-eastern states from which the militants have operated for five years. On the same day as the kidnappings, a massive bombing by Boko Haram insurgents killed more than 75 commuters hundreds of miles south on the outskirts of the capital.

The girls, who were mostly between 16 and 18 years old, were rounded up at gunpoint after militants overpowered a military guard assigned to a boarding school in Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state. They had just finished their final school exams. The school was the only one still open in the area following threats and attacks by Boko Haram, whose ideology opposes both so-called western education, and particularly women's education.

Danuma Mpur, the chairman of the local parent-teacher association, whose two nieces are among the missing, said: "Even this morning we've had no update. We pinned our hopes on the government, but all that hope is turning to frustration. The town is under a veil of sorrow."

After several attempts by unarmed parents to comb the vast forests where militant camps are located – and where near-daily air raids by the Nigerian army have been halted since the kidnappings – many said they had little faith in the government.

Hamma Balumai, a farmer whose 16-year-old daughter Hauwa was snatched, pooled his savings with other parents and ventured on a two-day trek into the forest this week. "Even my wife was begging to come as she is so disturbed she hasn't been able to eat anything. Our daughter Hauwa is only 16 years old and she has been missing for 11 days now,".

The parents turned around only after being warned by communities in the forest that their rag-tag group, armed with machetes and knives, would be gunned down by the militants, who wield sophisticated weapons.

Parents expressed their despair after President Goodluck Jonathan convened an emergency security council on Thursday with state governors, security chiefs and spiritual leaders from across Africa most populous, religiously mixed country. The government said its priority was to rescue the girls, kidnapped almost two weeks ago on 14 April, amid a deteriorating security situation.