According to the Federal Government, over 23,000 people have gone missing in Nigeria under various conditions, including insurgency and kidnapping, in less than a decade.
According to Betta Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the statistic represents half of those missing across Africa during the same period.
On August 30, Edu revealed this while addressing at a National Human Rights Commission event commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared.
The minister, who was represented by Ali Grema, the Director of Humanitarian Affairs, stated that a more efficient framework was required to better reporting and forensically track incidents of missing persons in the country.
“In Nigeria, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) have reported that more than 25,000 people have gone missing as a result of the insurgency in the North East in less than a decade.” This is half of the total number of missing people in Africa.
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“Over 23,000 people are still missing today.” However, this is likely just the tip of the iceberg, since a more efficient method is required to increase missing person reporting and forensically trace instances. “The exact number of people who have gone missing in the country has yet to be determined,” Edu stated.
She pledged to secure the domestication of international treaties and instruments through a whole-of-government approach, arguing that the policy would boost the country’s framework for dealing with missing persons concerns effectively and efficiently.
This is not the first time a ministry official has expressed concern about the lack of an efficient method for determining the true number of missing people in Nigeria. Sadiya Farouk, a former minister, stated in January 2023 that the government lacks an official register of missing persons.
Farouk, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Nasir Gwarzo, stated, “Currently, Nigeria has no national structure or Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to address humanitarian consequences of disappearances.”
“Because there is no official register, there is no reliable national data on the number of missing persons in Nigeria.”
“It is very understandable why Nigeria as a country and this ministry are very concerned about this often-neglected and tragic humanitarian and social issue,” she continued.
