Abuja (AFP) - Relatives of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram marked 500 days since their abduction Thursday, with hope of their rescue dwindling despite fresh efforts to end the insurgency.

The date was marked as the security situation deteriorated in northeastern Nigeria, where Islamists have stepped up deadly attacks since the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari, killing more than 1,000 people in three months.

Boko Haram fighters stormed the Government Secondary School in the remote town of Chibok in Borno state on the evening of April 14 last year, seizing 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year exams.

Fifty-seven escaped but nothing has been heard of the 219 others since May last year, when about 100 of them appeared in a Boko Haram video, dressed in Muslim attire and reciting the Koran.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has since said they have all converted to Islam and been "married off".

The Bring Back Our Girls social media and protest campaign staged a youth march in Abuja to mark the date.

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A young girl carries a sign with a name of a girl as family and friends mark 500 days since the abdu …

Dozens of young campaigners known as the "Chibok Girls Ambassadors" walked through the streets of the capital dressed in their signature red t-shirts, many with red ribbons tied to their hair and around their heads.

- 'Terribly ashamed' -

Waving placards with the names of the missing and banners with their pictures, they marched through the streets accompanied by prominent clerics and other well-wishers.

"My heart bleeds for the children. I feel terribly ashamed," said Abuja's Catholic archbishop John Onaiyekan, dressed in his red cardinal's robes.

"I feel ashamed that about 300 girls should disappear just like that."

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A man chants carrying his child on his shoulders during a rally to mark 500 days since the abduction …

Sheikh Nura Khalid, chief imam of the capital's Apo Mosque said he would challenge all fellow Muslim clerics to "use our pulpits to be preaching for the freedom of the Chibok girls".

An evening candle-lit vigil at the city's Unity Fountain was attended by around 50 of the campaigners.

The mass abduction brought the brutality of the Islamist insurgency to the world stage, prompting a widespread social media campaign demanding their release which was backed by a string of high-profile personalities including US First Lady Michelle Obama and the actress Angelina Jolie.

Nigeria's government was criticised for its initial response to the crisis and Western powers, including the US, have offered logistical and military support to Nigeria's rescue effort, but there have been few signs of progress.

The military says it knows where the girls are but has ruled out a rescue effort because of the danger to their lives.

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Relatives of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants marked 500 days on Thur …

- 'No hope' -

Boko Haram, which is blamed for killing more than 15,000 people and forcing 1.5 million out of their homes over the past six years, has rampaged across Borno since Buhari came to power on May 29, vowing to crush the insurgency.

The fresh violence has been a setback for a four-country offensive which started in February and had chalked up a number of victories against the jihadists.

An 8,700-strong Multi-National Joint Task Force, drawing in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin, is expected to go into action soon.

In an April report, Amnesty International quoted a senior military officer as saying the girls were being held at various Boko Haram camps, including in Cameroon and possibly Chad.

The Chibok abduction was one of 38 documented by the London-based rights group since the beginning of 2014, with women and girls who escaped saying they were subject to forced labour and marriage, as well as rape.

Fulan Nasrullah, a respected Nigerian security analyst and blogger who claims specialist knowledge of the inner workings of Boko Haram, told AFP there was "no hope" of ever recovering most of the Chibok girls.

"Most have had kids by now and are married to their captors. Many have been sold into the global sex trade and are probably prostituting in Sudan, Dubai, Cairo and other far flung places," he said, adding that some had likely been killed while trying to escape.

VIENNA (AP) — Police arrested several people believed to be part of a human smuggling operation in connection with the deaths of 71 migrants who likely suffocated in a refrigerated truck found abandoned on Austria's main highway, law enforcement officials said Friday.

Austrian police said three people had been arrested while their Hungarian counterparts said four were in detention. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

This year has seen tens of thousands of people risking everything to seek a better life or refuge in wealthy European countries. At least 2,500 have died, mostly at sea, where another tragedy was unfolding Friday as Libyan authorities counted bodies from two ships that capsized off the coast of that country. The U.N. refugee agency said 200 were missing and feared dead.

In Austria, officials said they are still investigating but believe the migrants suffocated. Investigators found a Syrian travel document, indicating that at least some of the dead were refugees fleeing violence in Syria, though it wasn't clear if some were from elsewhere.

The 71 included eight women and four children, the youngest a girl between 1 and 2 years old, the others boys aged 8 to 10. Authorities initially estimated the death toll at 20 to 50, but raised it after towing the truck to a refrigerated warehouse and counting the partially decomposed bodies.

Migrants fearful of death at sea in overcrowded and flimsy boats have increasingly turned to using a land route to Europe through the Western Balkans. They start in Greece, which they can reach via a short boat trip from Turkey, then move on through Macedonia, Serbia and into Hungary, where thousands have been crossing the border every day, crawling over or under a razor-wire fence meant to keep them out.

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Police Director of the Austrian province of Burgenland Hans Peter Doskozil informs the media at a ne …

Most go from there to other countries in the European Union, sometimes paying smugglers to drive them, but the discovery of the bodies in the truck showed there is no truly safe path.

Police in Hungary said that as of Tuesday, 776 suspected human smugglers had been detained so far this year, compared to 593 all of 2014. In the southern part of the country, police said they had found 18 Syrians near an overturned van on the M5 highway between Szeged and Budapest early Friday. Ten were taken to the hospital for treatment while the driver, a Romanian, was treated for head injuries and then taken into custody on suspicion of human smuggling.

The truck with the 71 migrants inside was found parked in the safety lane of the highway from Budapest, Hungary, to Vienna on Thursday. It was not clear how long the bodies had been in it, but police believed they may already have been dead by the time the truck crossed the border into Austria overnight Wednesday. Autopsies were being conducted, said state prosecutor Johann Fuchs, with results expected in several days.

Austrian police said that two of the three arrested are Bulgarian citizens, while the third has Hungarian identity papers. One is the truck owner, a Bulgarian of Lebanese descent, while two others were apparently taking turns driving, said Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of police in Burgenland province, where the truck was found. He said police believe that the suspects were part of a larger Bulgarian-Hungarian human smuggling ring.

In Budapest, Hungarian national police spokeswoman Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said four people — three Bulgarian citizens and one from Afghanistan — were in custody in connection with the deaths.

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Forensic police officers inspect a parked truck in which up to 50 migrants were found dead, on a mot …

Csiszer-Kovacs said two Hungarian police detectives were working with authorities in Austria on the case.

Fuchs said it was unclear when the suspects would be extradited by Hungarian authorities, who were looking to see if they had jurisdiction in the case. Romania's foreign ministry also said that 12 Romanians had been detained in Hungary on suspicion of human trafficking and Hungarian authorities are seeking to arrest them.

Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the tragedy "should serve as a wake-up call ... for joint European action" in dealing with the torrent of migrants flocking to Europe. Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva called the tragedy "absolutely shocking."

"We believe this underscores the ruthlessness of people smugglers who have expanded their business from the Mediterranean Sea to the highways of Europe. It shows they have absolutely no regard for human life, and that they are only after profit," she said. "It also shows the desperation of people seeking protection or a new life in Europe, and their only means is to submit themselves to these criminals."

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Associated Press Writer Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania; Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary; and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

ZUWARA, Libya (AP) — Libyan authorities were collecting the bodies of migrants who drowned off the western coastal city of Zuwara, with some 200 feared dead on Friday in the latest disaster involving desperate people trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw workers removing bodies from the water, and pulling a flooded boat into the harbor that contained several drowned victims floating face down. At least one victim, a man, was wearing a life vest. They were put into body bags and lined up on the waterfront.

Hussein Asheini, the head of Libya's Red Crescent in Zuwara, said at least 105 people were killed, some while trapped inside the boat after it capsized. Fishermen and the coast guard found the waterlogged vessel at sea and towed it back to Zuwara, where they had to break the ship's deck to reach people trapped inside.

"The boat sank out at sea, and a coast guard team is still diving in and checking inside to see if there's anyone else," he said. There were conflicting casualty figures and the Red Crescent was still counting the bodies and the survivors, he added.

In a statement, the United Nations refugee agency said that up to 200 people were missing and feared dead after the Libyan coast guard carried out rescue operations Thursday for two boats carrying an estimated 500 migrants.

Othman Belbeisi, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration for Libya, said in a statement: "We are still waiting for more details, but we have learned there were 400 people on one of two boats."

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In this Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 photo, rescuers gather around the bodies of drowned migrants in Zuwa …

He said 100 were rescued, including nine women and two girls.

The head of passport control police in Zuwara, Anwar Abu el-Deeb, said his organization has no contact with the Italian or any other coast guard in coordinating efforts to stop the smuggling. He also said he's unable to estimate the number of boats that leave the city because they depart in secrecy.

The Libyan coast guard does not have enough ships and equipment needed to tackle the issue, while the coast guard in Zuwara is not in operation, said Ayoub Qassem, the spokesman for the navy of Libya's Islamist-backed Tripoli government, which has been fighting a separate internationally recognized government in the East.

"The coast guard's capabilities are very weak and that's what contributes to the rise in migration, in addition to the security situation in the country," said Qassem. Libya needs "real cooperation" including in the southern Libyan border "to lay siege to the problem which is exhausting Libyans," he said.

"The process is organized and carried out by gangs with various citizenships that are taking advantage of the situation in Libya, along with smugglers from Libya," he said.

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In this Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 photo, rescuers gather around the bodies of drowned migrants still i …

Most of the people rescued came from Syria and sub-Saharan African countries, said Mohamed al-Misrati, the spokesman for the Red Crescent in Libya.

"You can imagine what they are going through. Some of them are still looking for their friends. We're trying to speak to them but many of them are too traumatized to even talk about the incident," said al-Misrati. The Red Crescent is trying to provide psychological assistance, in addition to food and water in shelters they were moved to, he said.

In a separate rescue operation by the Libyan coast guard on Wednesday, UNHCR said 51 people were found dead of suffocation in the hold of a boat, with survivors recounting how smugglers beat them with sticks to keep them under the deck. It said one survivor described how smugglers forced passengers into the packed hold and were demanding money to allow them to come up to breathe fresh air.

Dozens of boats are launched from lawless Libya each week, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of the surge of migrants.

Two Libyans accused of human smuggling were arrested in Zuwara on Thursday, a security official in the town said, without providing further information. He requested anonymity because he is not authorized to brief reporters.

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In this Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 photo, the body of a drowned migrant is lies on a dock in Zuwara, Li …

Human smuggling of people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa from Libya has spiked, as smugglers take advantage of the turmoil in Libya to use it as a staging ground for departures to Europe in rickety, overcrowded boats.

Since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moammer Gadhafi, the oil-rich north African country has plunged into chaos. It is divided between an elected parliament and government based in the eastern port city of Tobruk and an Islamist militia-backed government in the capital Tripoli. Militants from the Islamic State group are also exploiting the chaos.

"As a result of Libya's armed conflict, stopping the 'death boats' cannot be done only by Libya. There must be an international effort to curb this issue," said the Red Crescent's al-Misrati.

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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Brian Rohan in Cairo and Esam Mohamed in Tripoli contributed to this report.