Nigerian government: urgent action needed to find 23,000 missing persons

By Damilola Adeleke

Dr. Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, has revealed that due to insurgency in various parts of Nigeria, more than 23,000 people have been reported missing in less than a decade. She shared this information during a stakeholders’ engagement event in Abuja, held under the theme “Where are you now,” to mark the International Day of the Disappeared. According to Dr. Edu, this number of missing individuals in Nigeria accounts for half of the total across the entire African continent. The minister emphasized the need for a more efficient mechanism to improve reporting and forensically trace cases of missing persons. She highlighted that the figures were based on a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), which reflect the impact of insurgency in certain regions of Nigeria. Dr. Edu acknowledged the issue of missing persons as a critical and enduring humanitarian consequence of armed conflicts, and she assured that the administration is committed to addressing this challenge by enhancing legal frameworks to tackle cases of disappearance.