BEVERLY HILLS, August 31, (THEWILL) – About 23,000 of the 44,000 registered missing persons across Africa are from Nigeria, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has declared.
A statement by the ICRC on caseload of missing people in the continent, says the high figure is driven almost entirely by the Boko Haram conflict in the northeast.
The statement added that Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon, who together with Nigeria make up 82 percent of ICRC’s missing caseload in Africa. 45 per cent of the cases were children at the time they went missing.
All seven countries have seen a rise in the number of people registered with the ICRC as missing in the first half of 2020, at a time when restrictions put in place to curb COVID-19 create new challenges in searching for missing people.
According to ICRC, “despite the increase in new cases, COVID-19 has created new challenges in searching for missing people as it is no longer possible to gather people in large groups to listen for names or look through photos. Many countries suspended domestic travel between states or provinces, making it more difficult for searches to be done over wider geographic areas. Access to places of detention, where the ICRC would look for cases, is suspended in some places to limit the risk of COVID-19 exposure.”
“This caseload is a drop in the ocean to the true scale of people whose family members are searching for them. Conflict, violence, migration and climate shocks have not stopped separating families in the pandemic, but our work to find missing people has become even harder”, said Sophie Marsac, the regional advisor for the missing and their families in Africa for the ICRC.
Marsac added that “the tragedy of missing people is a humanitarian crisis and one that cannot be forgotten as the world focuses on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.”
ALSO READ: Nigeria’s Capital Inflow Declines By 78.60%
The ICRC calls on authorities to acknowledge the tragedy of missing people and the impact that it has on families and to do everything in their power to prevent people from going missing, take measures to search for those who are missing, and to provide information to families on the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.
“I hardly sleep,” said Kaltum, whose daughter went missing in Nigeria nine years ago. “I feel it in my heart that my daughter is alive. I still have hope.”
About the Author
