- Today August 30th is International Day of the Disappeared
As the world marks the International Day of the Disappeared August 30th, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says Nigeria accounts for 24,000 missing people, the largest missing caseload in Africa with 44,000 registered as missing.
Mr Aliyu Dawobe, ICRC’s Public Relations Officer, said in a statement on Sunday in Abuja that out of the 44,000 people across Africa registered as missing, children accounted for over 45 per cent.
According to the ICRC, “eighty-two per cent of the missing are registered in seven countries in Africa, namely Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.
“Nigeria accounts for 24,000 missing people, over half of those registered as missing in Africa, and represents ICRC’s largest missing caseload on the continent.
“More than 90 per cent of the cases are the result of the armed conflicts in the northeast of the country and 57 per cent were children at the time they went missing.’’
The ICRC says it stands with the families and relatives of the missing, commemorating with them in solidarity but assuring them that they are not alone and that their loved ones are not forgotten.
Dawobe said that the African continent had seen a rise in the number of people registered with the ICRC as missing since 2020, due to armed conflicts and other situations of violence.
He said that the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to restrictions that added more challenges in searching for missing people.
The ICRC will continue to do its best in supporting and seeking to provide answers to the families of missing persons, he said.