The abduction of more than 200 school girls in Nigeria last week is trending in the country today. Thousands have been tweeting the hashtags #BringBackOurGirls and #WhereAreOurDaughters in an effort to exert pressure on the authorities to rescue the girls, who were taken by suspected Boko Haram militants. Some of the girls escaped. Nigerians want answers about the whereabouts of the remainder. They’ve also used Twitter to urge the government and the army to take more action. “#BringBackOurGirls to restore confidence,” tweeted Kayodeojutaiye, an economist based in Abuja. “The capability of our government to protect us will be in doubt if they don’t”.

The fate of the girls dominated yesterday’s Expanded National Security Meeting held in Abuja and attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, military chiefs, all but one of the country’s 36 state governors and selected religious, as well as traditional rulers.

The meeting tasked the Nigerian military to do everything necessary to rescue the girls, who were abducted from Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram terrorists in the night of Monday, April 14.

•Based partly on a BBC report.