The Empire State Building in New York was lit up in red and purple last night to honour the more than 200 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria, exactly one year ago.

The girls have yet to be found and Nigeria's President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to make every effort to free them, but admitted yesterday it was not clear whether they would ever be found.

The abduction of the girls from a secondary school in Chibok in the country's Northeast last April drew international attention to the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram's attempt to establish a caliphate in religiously mixed Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer.

Amnesty International said in a report yesterday that Boko Haram has kidnapped at least 2,000 Nigerian women and girls since the start of 2014, many of whom were sexually abused or trained to fight.

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