In less than ten years, the Federal Government claims that over 23,000 people have vanished in Nigeria under various conditions, including insurgency and kidnapping.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, stated that the amount represents half of those who went missing in Africa over the same time period.
Edu revealed this on August 30 at a National Human Rights Commission event commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared.
The minister made the observation that a more effective structure was required to enhance reporting and forensically locate incidents of missing persons in the nation. The minister was represented by Director of Humanitarian Affairs, Ali Grema.
According to reports, the insurgency in the North East has caused the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) to record more than 25,000 people as missing in Nigeria in less than ten years. This is equivalent to half of all the people who are missing throughout Africa.
“Today, more than 23,000 people remain missing. However, this is probably only the beginning, as a more effective system is required to enhance reporting and forensically trace incidents of missing persons. The precise number of people who have gone missing in the nation is yet unknown, according to Edu.
She pledged to use a whole society and government approach to domesticate international treaties and instruments, and she made the case that doing so would improve the nation’s system for dealing with matters involving missing persons.
This is not the first time a ministry representative has lamented the absence of a reliable method for tracking the exact number of missing people in Nigeria. In January 2023, the country’s ex-minister, Sadiya Farouk, claimed there was no official missing persons database.
Farouk stated, “At the moment, Nigeria lacks a national structure or Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to address the humanitarian consequences of disappearances,” who was speaking on behalf of the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Nasir Gwarzo.
Because there is no official registration, there are currently no accurate national statistics on the number of missing people in Nigeria.
She went on to say that it was “very understandable” why the nation of Nigeria and this ministry were so worried about this unfortunate and much ignored humanitarian and societal crisis.
