North-East insurgency: 17,000 Nigerians still missing – ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has revealed that an estimated 17,000 Nigerians are still missing, primarily due to attacks in insurgency-prone areas of the North-East and other conflict zones. This update was made ahead of the International Day of the Disappeared, commemorated annually on August 30. The latest figure represents a significant reduction of approximately 6,000 compared to the previous year's report of 23,659 missing persons.

Emeline Montel, the Protection of Family Links Delegate at the ICRC Mubi office, disclosed during an event in Yola that about 3,000 of the missing individuals were from Adamawa State. Montel emphasized that the figures are based on cases documented by the ICRC, which supports families in locating their missing relatives and reconnecting them where feasible.

The event, organized by relatives of missing persons in collaboration with the ICRC, included community cleaning, street cleaning, remembrance activities, and awareness campaigns leading up to the International Day of the Disappeared. Participants highlighted that many missing individuals were breadwinners and young people who disappeared while striving to build their lives.

Habiba Mustapha, a member of the Association of Families of Disappeared Persons, shared her experience of losing four relatives whose whereabouts remain unknown. Mustapha, who was displaced from Gwoza in Borno State to Adamawa, expressed the profound emotional and economic hardships her family continues to endure, particularly as her children are unable to attend school and she finds herself in a new environment.