Africans, particularly South Africans, should be outraged at the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian school girls, Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said on Sunday.

"It is deeply shocking that 276 girls between 12 and 17 are reported still to be missing, three weeks after being abducted," he said during a sermon at St John's Church, Bellville, in Cape Town.

"We are one continent and these girls are our children."

He questioned why the international community had not "erupted in outrage" over the kidnapping.

"Where are our ubuntu values when girls are kidnapped at such a tender age," he said.

News agency Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday that Nigerian police said the kidnappers, suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists, were still holding 223 out of the 276 girls on Friday.

Makgoba called on Africans to demand the girls be set free.

"All of Africa, and especially South Africa which has benefited from the hospitality and generosity of other nations, must rise up and demand their release."

The African National Congress Women's League and the South African government previously expressed concern for the girls' safety.

On Saturday ANCWL spokeswoman Edna Molewa said: "[We] would like to implore the Nigerian government to heighten search efforts for the remaining kidnapped young girls."

International relations department spokesman Clayson Monyela said in a statement on Friday that the South African government called on African Union member states and the international community to support Nigeria in its battle against terrorism.

"The kidnapping of children in particular is condemned in the strongest terms and the South African government calls on the perpetrators of this heinous act to release the persons immediately and refrain from harming the kidnapped persons."