This story was updated most recently at 8:43 p.m. ET on May 26.
Hundreds of missing girls who were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria last month have been located, but military personnel are unable to free them using force, according to the Associated Press.
Nigeria's chief of defense staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, said on Monday that the country's military has located the schoolgirls, who were abducted on April 15, but using force to free them is currently out of the question. "We can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back," he said to a group of military supporters gathered Monday in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city.
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Badeh did not specify where the girls are located. A U.S. Defense Department spokesperson told the AP that the department cannot confirm reports that Nigeria has located the missing schoolgirls.
The military has been searching for the missing schoolgirls for weeks. In April, more than 200 girls were abducted in a raid of the school by Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group located in the region. Monday marked the first time officials have claimed to know the girls' whereabouts.
The situation has sparked action from numerous world powers, including the United States. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama sent 80 members of its armed forces to neighboring Chad to assist in the search. The team specializes in drone technology, not necessarily hand-to-hand combat, and their presence was intended to " launch, recover and maintain unmanned aerial systems," a Defense Department spokesperson told Mashable last week.
Earlier this month, First Lady Michelle Obama took to social media to participate in the global campaign hoping to help bring the girls home. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls has been used on social-media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, to help collect conversation and efforts related to the kidnappings.
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It's time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014