Dr Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, has disclosed that as a result of insurgency in some parts of Nigeria, over 23,000 people have been reported missing in less than a decade.
The minister disclosed this in Abuja at a stakeholders’ engagement with the theme: “Where are you now”, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared on Wednesday.
According to her, Nigeria’s figure of missing persons represented half the number in the whole of Africa.
“Today, over 23,000 persons are still missing.”
“However, it is likely that this is just the tip of the iceberg as a more efficient mechanism is needed to improve the reporting and forensically trace cases of missing persons,” she said.
Edu explained further that the figure is according to a report of the missing people released by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) as a result of the insurgency in some parts of the country.
She also described the issue of missing persons as one of the most critical and long-lasting humanitarian consequences of armed conflicts that needed sober reflection.
The minister, however, promised that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was committed to curbing the issue, hence the need to facilitate and strengthen the legal frameworks that would substantially address the incidences of disappearance.
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