As more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls remain missing after being abducted by Islamist militants, a solidarity rally is being organised in Medway.

The girls were abducted from a boarding school last month by the Boko Haram group. The kidnapping has triggered a huge international campaign, with world leaders and celebrities calling for the children to be released.

The Gillingham-based charity Health Action Charity Organisation (HACO), which supports African communities in Medway, in partnership with Nigerians living in the Towns, are holding a rally on Saturday, May 24.

They will be converging in Gillingham High Street at 10am to march to Chatham.

Tina Murphy, director of HACO, said: “The horror of the girls’ plight has now made world headlines through #BringBackOurGirls, and become a rallying call for the right of women to education.

"Chibok is a local government area of Borno State in northern part of Nigeria. The 10 states with the highest number of girls and boys not in secondary school are found in the north, and these ten states have the highest percentage of female aged between 15 to 24 years who cannot read or write. This has created a wider social base of uneducated, and unemployed persons hostile towards education.”

Yesterday the Boko Haram released a video apparently showing the kidnapped Chibok girls. The video shows Abubakar Shekau, the fugitive Boko Haram leader, and more than 100 girls wearing hijab.

Mr Shekau said he would release the girls, who he claims have converted to Islam, if Boko Haram prisoners held nationwide are released.

Teams of British, American and French experts have all flown to Nigeria to assist the government in trying to rescue the girls.