Dr Betta Edu, has opened up that about 23,000 Nigerians have been reported missing in less than a decade due to the effect of insurgency in some parts of the country, SAVANNAH NEWS REPORTS.
Betta Edu is the newly inaugurated Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
The Honourable minister made the assertion in Abuja at a stakeholders meeting with the theme: “Where are you now”, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared on Wednesday.
She made it the known that the report of the missing people was released to the public 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.
According to her statement: “Today, over 23,000 persons are still missing,” Edu announced.
“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 portrayed the issue of missing persons as one of the most critical and long-lasting humanitarian consequences of armed conflicts that needed sober reflection.
She said Tinubu led administration was committed to eradicate the issue and out things in the right way, hence the need to facilitate and strengthen the legal frameworks that would substantially address the incidences of disappearance.
