Over 25,000 people in Nigeria are registered as missing with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as of Aug. 2022, according to the humanitarian organisation. This is a thousand more missing people compared to the figure released in the previous year. And more worrisome is that across Africa, about 64,000 people are registered as missing. This means Nigeria accounts for more than a third of the number across the continent.

The cause of the problem is primarily the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast that has led to the displacement of over 3.1 million people, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Families get separated during raids where members are abducted by terror groups while hurrying to escape from attacks and Boko Haram occupation or as a result of arbitrary arrests (and detention) by the Nigerian military or other militias assisting with counterinsurgency.

Within the past year, HumAngle conducted extensive research into this problem. Our aim is to support the establishment of a national missing persons register by providing credible information from sources across Northeast Nigeria using Borno State as a pilot. An overview of the data we collected is available on this dashboard, containing information about over 3,600 people who have gone missing across ten local government areas.

Further analysis of this data is included in the report that we now share with you. We break down the numbers using various indices and also include accounts from some of the victim’s relatives.