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| Dr. Reuben Abati |
The Nigerian government will not pay a ransom to secure the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants a month ago, a special adviser to the country's president has told Sky News.
Doctor Reuben Abati told our Special Correspondent Alex Crawford there are lines they will not cross in the hunt for the girls, who were taken from a boarding school in the north of the country.
Speaking after it was revealed authorities have made indirect contact with Boko Haram, Dr Abati said: "The government of Nigeria has no intention to pay a ransom or to buy the girls, because the sale of human beings is a crime against humanity.
Burnt out Nigeria school where girls were kidnapped from on April 14 The school from where the girls were taken was badly damaged
"The determination of the government is to get the girls and to ensure that the impunity that has brought this about is checked and punished."
The search remains centred on the huge Sambisa forest, which is three times the size of Wales.
Intelligence sources have told Sky News that Nigeria's neighbours - Chad, Cameroon and Niger - are providing satellite imagery to help find the teenagers.
Churchgoers pray for the release of secondary school girls abducted from the remote village of Chibok, at an Evangelical Church of West Africa church in Abuja. Churchgoers in the capital Abuja pray for the release of the girls
Sky News sources have also learned the militants are likely to have laid booby traps and landmines to stop the girls being found.
Israel has become the latest country to offer to help the search effort. Experts from Britain, France and the US are already in the country.
French President Francois Hollande has offered to host a summit in Paris this week involving Nigeria and its neighbours
pic for charlotte The girls were kidnapped in Chibok in Borno state
Two divisions of Nigeria's army have been sent to Borno and the country's president, Goodluck Jonathan, said this. combined with the international help, made him optimistic of finding the girls.
But there has been further criticism of the government's response to the kidnapping.
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar told Sky News: "This is a clear case of mismanagement of a small group of bandits who have been allowed to really grow into a monstrous terrorist organisation that we now have."
Nigeria Boko Haram's leader has threatened to sell the girls
Boko Haram, whose name is said to figuratively mean "Western education is forbidden", has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria for the last five years.
The group has killed more than 1,500 people this year alone.
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