The Federal Government stated on Tuesday that there is no official register for missing persons in Nigeria.
Furthermore, because there is no official registry, there are no credible national figures on the number of missing people.
During a stakeholders meeting organized by the ministry in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, the minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, disclosed this information.
The government now lacks a national structure or Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to deal with the humanitarian effects of disappearances, according to Sadiya, who was represented by the permanent secretary Nasir Gwarzo.
”The Federal Government was very concerned about often-neglected and tragic humanitarian and social issues. Irregular migration by many Nigerians, including children across borders. The Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert, in search of safety and a better life each year, often contribute to the great risk of disappearance as the latest figures show that Nigeria is recorded over 25,000 missing persons, including over 14,000 children out of the 64,000 disappeared persons across Africa”, the minister said.
Head of ICRC Nigeria Delegation, Yann Bonzon, revealed that over 13,000 families across the country were looking for their missing loved ones.