Malala Yousafzai: Kidnapped Nigerian girls must be found

Malala Yousafzai has told Newsround she wants the schoolgirls who were taken in Nigeria in Africa last year, to be released and brought back home.

The girls were taken by the extremist group, Boko Haram, in April last year.

Some of the girls have since escaped, but more than 200 are still missing.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala, who campaigns for education for all children, says that the Nigerian authorities must keep looking for the girls.

Advice if you're upset by the news

Ceremonies took place this week to mark a year since it happened

What happened?

On 14 April 2014, a group of schoolgirls, aged 16 to 18, were kidnapped as they were preparing for their exams in a boarding school.

They were in the north of the country, an area called Chibok, Borno state. Parts of that area are dangerous because of fighting between the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram and the government of Nigeria.

Boko Haram believe that all children, but particularly girls, should not be allowed to have an education in the same way as most children around the world.

'Bring back our girls'

Protests took place all over the world

At the time people all over the world who were shocked by the story and they started a campaign called "bring back our girls".

US first lady Michelle Obama, the Prime Minister David Cameron and Malala herself all spoke out against what happened.

Why is Malala involved?

Malala was also targeted by extremists in Pakistan, because she spoke out in favour of girls' education.

On her way home from school one day, she was shot by the extremist Islamic group called the Taliban.

She's now fully recovered and travelled to Nigeria last year, to campaign for the schoolgirls release.

"Before meeting the president, I met with those girls who were abducted by Boko Haram," she told Newsround.

"It was really sad to know they were hopeless, and all they wanted was their daughters to come back.

"When I met [Nigeria's] president I asked him to make sure that the government try its best to find a possible solution for releasing the girls."

The extraordinary and upsetting story is still in the minds of many across the world. Campaigners say until these girls are found, they will never be forgotten.