YOUNG people will be wearing red tomorrow to raise awareness of the horrific kidnap of hundreds of schoolgirls by Islamists militants in Nigeria.

Staff and students at Bolton Sixth Form College will be wearing the colour every Friday to show their support for the #bringbackourgirls campaign.

On April 15, about 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their boarding school by the militant terrorist group Boko Haram and have disappeared.

Now weeks later, following outrage on social media, world leaders, led by America, have been offering assistance to the African nation to find the girls.

Sharon Marshall, literacy coordinator and senior tutor at Bolton Sixth Form College, will be wearing red along with other staff and students to show support for the girls and their families.

She said: “I had heard about the campaign on social media as I follow a number of humanitarian organisations through the literacy programme.

“The ‘bring back our girls’ campaign is to do with education and females denied the right to education.

“I asked what we can do, and the answer was to raise awareness and as a college students and staff have been invited to wear red.”

Ms Marshall added: “Awareness does work, other countries are now taking notice because of the campaign.”

The lecturer said students were shocked to hear what had happened to young people.

Ms Marshall said: “This is not about religion or geography, it is about young people who are being denied an opportunity.

“Students were quite shocked when they had heard about what had happened and some really want to raise awareness of this issue.”

In a video message, the gun toting leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau threatened to sell the girls who he described as slaves.

Ms Marshall together with Cllr Sufrana Ismail, will also be in Victoria Square on Saturday handing out leaflets to get Bolton behind the campaign to bring the girls home.