The International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC has raised concern over the whereabouts of 23,659 missing persons due to armed conflicts across Nigeria.
Family Link Officer of the ICRC, Benson Lee disclosed the disturbing situation during the commemoration of the 2025 International Day for the disappeared held in Yola at the weekend revealing that no fewer than 13,595 families are still searching for their loved ones across Nigeria.
Lee stated that 59 percent of those missing were minors at the time they disappeared, while 67% of the cases occurred in Borno State stressing that behind each missing person is a family living in anguish and uncertainty, struggling with the pain of not knowing what happened to their loved ones.
Lee said that the day seeks to promote empathy by highlighting the impact of people going missing has on families and communities. The issue of missing people, including victims of enforced disappearance, is one of the most devastating and long lasting consequences of armed disasters and migration.
He maintained that the suffering is further compounded by economic, administrative, legal psychological, and psychosocial challenges
“Worldwide figures show that in 2024 alone, more than 94,000 people were registered as missing by their families with the Family Links Network, bringing the current number of registered missing people to approximately 284,400. From our experience, this is only a fraction of the true number of missing people out there,” Lee said.
Speaking at the event, a family member of a missing person who was displaced from Gwoza in Borno state, Abdulrahaman Bukar shared his untold hardship in an effort to trace their missing relations as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that many families are psychologically traumatized by the disappearance of their loved ones.
Bukar decried that some families are deeply in pain and reeling in silence due to the alleged arrest and detention in security custody for acclaimed interrogation in the aftermath of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“A number of families whose loved ones were in detention are in serious pains because of the fact that they could do nothing about their plights. The fear of being roped has prevented many families from seeking freedom for detained members,”
“Currently my relative has been in detention in Giwa barracks for over nine years but the fear of being roped in a consequential crime has prevented us from making any move to free him,” he added.
He thanked the ICRC for ensuring that victims of the Boko Haram insurgency have been organized into family associations noting that such move has restored their dignity, confidence and feeling of self worth.
“We appreciate ICRC for the wisdom of organizing us into family associations. This has given us sense of belonging, restored our dignity, gave us another lease of life and freed us from the scourge of discrimination we have been Bukar said.
