Aliyu Dawobe, Public Relations Officer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has disclosed that more than 17,000 people affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s North-East remain missing, underscoring the enduring humanitarian toll of the conflict.
Dawobe disclosed this in Lagos at the end of a two-day ICRC training programme for journalists on humanitarian reporting, saying the number of missing persons was previously estimated at more than 24,000.
He explained that the figure had dropped to over 17,000 largely because the ICRC had lost contact with some families who had reported relatives missing. According to him, the organisation continues to trace missing persons and facilitate their reunification with families where possible.
“Crisis in the North-East has been ongoing for over 16 years. Millions of people are in need of food. Over three million children from the affected families are malnourished. A lot of people have been separated from their loved ones for over 10 years. A lot of people have been displaced in the region,” he said.
Dawobe said the prolonged insurgency had left families struggling with the trauma of separation, displacement and uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones.
He urged the media to shift greater attention towards the experiences of civilians affected by armed conflict, saying journalism should not merely document violence but also expose its humanitarian consequences.
“The ICRC wants the media to take the lead in changing the pattern of reportage about people affected by conflicts in Nigeria. We want the stories to be focused on the sufferings of the affected people with a view to alleviating their pains.
“We want the media to raise concerns about the sufferings of people affected by the conflicts; to report real human-angle stories linked to the missing persons and the trauma they are facing,” he said.
Dawobe said 50 journalists were selected for the training, which was designed to strengthen their capacity to report conflicts from a humanitarian perspective and provide greater visibility for victims whose experiences are often overshadowed by reports of attacks and casualties.
Also speaking, Bala Muhammad, lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano, said journalists needed stronger knowledge of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to improve conflict reporting.
Muhammad said humanitarian journalism should place victims at the centre of reporting and encourage stories that draw attention to the conditions confronting communities affected by insurgency, militancy and other forms of violence.
“The training is on humanitarian journalism and conflict reporting. We want journalists to find ways to ameliorate the sufferings and hardships faced by victims of insurgency, militancy and other crimes,” he said.
“We want journalists to always place the victims at the centre of their stories. Human-angle stories are the most important,” he added.
