24,000 Nigerians Missing – New Report

The International Committee of Red Cross, ICRC, has reported that 24,000 Nigerians are currently missing.

Vice President of the ICRC, Gilles Carbonnier revealed this during his courtesy call to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Developmen, Sadiya Umar Farouq.

According to Carbonnier, “We have received 24,000 requests from Nigerian families who came to us to ask for news of their daughters or sons who are missing.”

The report also said, a total of 2.2 million persons in the North East are displaced from their original homes, currently.

Disclosing this latest development to the public, the international agency then sought partnership with the federal government via the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in resolving the 24,000 requests of missing persons made by Nigerian families.

To walk the talk, the ICRC VP went ahead to offer the Central Tracing Agency in finding missing persons during disasters as well as the forensic management of the dead during emergencies.

“We seek to work with different entities to progress in the resolution of these missing cases. In Africa, this accounts for half of the case load of missing persons on the continent,” he requested.

He also tipped: “We also have strong expertise in forensic science on how to deal with what we call dead body management in cases of emergencies, to help in the dignified management of the dead and also ensure that people don’t go missing during emergencies and disasters.”

According to the ICRC Boss: ““We celebrated the 100th anniversary of our Central Tracing Agency that deals with identifying missing persons and reconnecting them with their families. In that framework, I think that it will be good for Nigeria to have an inter-ministerial mechanism where these cases of missing persons can first be registered in a central data base.”

In gratitude, the minister gave the request a nod, thanking ICRC for its numerous humanitarian works in Nigeria especially in the North East and their provision of support and succour for the IDPs.

She said: “The ministry is keen on working with the ICRC on missing persons to learn from your expertise on addressing these issues. There are a lot of issues of unaccompanied minors in the IDP camps who have lost their parents and we don’t even know their identities. This is something the government is working on to see how these unaccompanied minors can be identified. We can collaborate with your  Agency to trace their identities and find lasting solutions to missing persons in emergency situations.”

The minister noted: “The main focus here apart from the humanitarian intervention is to provide durable solutions to these vulnerable groups”,

Farouq said: “The Federal government has approved the National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons which also includes working towards the domestication of the Kampala Convention. We are working with the National Assembly and relevant authorities.”

“The  forensic science of managing mass fatalities during disasters is very important as well and I am sure that the National Emergency Management Agency will key into this forensic support. These are areas that the ministry is very much interested in,” she said.