The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has concluded a two-day training for HumAngle journalists on missing persons and family separations in conflict zones. The workshop, held at HumAngle’s headquarters in Abuja, explored topical issues surrounding handling information about a missing person, especially amid humanitarian crises.

Qusai Alazroni, ICRC’s Communications Coordinator, led sessions to sharpen participants’ understanding of the complexities involved in interacting with affected families. Serhat Ozturk, another delegate from the humanitarian organisation, made a presentation to explain the effects and challenges of separation and enforced disappearance on victims of war.

The session examined cases of people who previously experienced separation and displacement, identifying the immediate needs and traumas of such persons and their families. Issues were raised about families of missing people refusing to conduct funerals because they cannot accept that their loved ones are dead. Ozturk highlighted the sensitivity of dealing with families of missing and separated persons.

In a succeeding session, Alazroni led a discussion on the role of the media during humanitarian crises and pathways that could foster credible and balanced reporting of these critical issues. Angela Umoru-David, the Director of the newsroom’s sister organisation, HumAngle Foundation, chipped in, explaining that the foundation is exploring ways of amplifying and conducting advocacy efforts from a solutions-driven approach.

“I  see an opportunity for the Foundation to help in not just reframing the conversation, but also to help with building mechanisms around the deployment of some of these solutions, and replicating some of the models that the ICRC has tried,” she said.

During the interactive sessions, Alazroni acknowledged that there has been progress generally and that while it is slow, it is mainly because this kind of work takes time.

Alazroni emphasised the importance of the media pushing for improved efforts from key stakeholders and stressed the need for intentional reporting, leveraging sensitive data, and purposeful partnerships with relevant agencies to achieve significant impact.

Speaking on one key takeaway from the training, HumAngle’s Investigations Editor, Kunle Adebajo, said he hoped more journalists would begin to think of intentional ways of keeping in touch with and checking up on sources, especially after interviewing them about a traumatic experience, so as not to leave them worse off. “I hope this is something more journalists would do,” he said.

HumAngle’s Managing Editor, Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu,  commended the ICRC for the important work they do in ensuring the lives and families of people struggling in conflict zones are secured and separated families are reunited.

“We have respect for the work that you do. A lot of the investigations we have been able to do around missing persons would not have been possible without the foundation that your organisation has laid over the past years. Because you’ve established that tens  of thousands of people are missing in the northeast, we had the authority to go ahead and investigate some of the cases because we know you as credible sources.”

The training ended with both organisations reaffirming the need for more collaborations like this one across newsrooms and like-minded organisations.