Families across Nigeria are still searching for thousands of relatives who disappeared during attacks and other violent incidents, with the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, estimating that about 17,000 people remain unaccounted for.
The ICRC disclosed the figure on Wednesday ahead of the International Day of the Disappeared, observed every August 30, saying most of the documented cases were linked to insurgency in the North-East and other conflict-affected areas.
The latest estimate is about 6,000 lower than last year’s figure of 23,659 missing persons being sought by their families.
Speaking during an event in Yola, the Protection of Family Links Delegate at the ICRC Mubi office, Emeline Montel, said Adamawa State accounts for about 3,000 of the missing persons.
Montel explained that the figures represent cases documented by the ICRC, which works with families to trace missing relatives and restore contact where possible.
She spoke to journalists during a public sanitation exercise, street cleaning, remembrance and awareness campaign organised by relatives of missing persons with support from the ICRC as part of activities leading up to the August 30 commemoration.
The relatives said the exercise was also intended to draw public attention to the hardships faced by families whose lives have been disrupted by the disappearance of loved ones.
They said many of those missing were breadwinners and young people who disappeared while trying to build their lives.
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