An estimated 17,000 Nigerians who went missing, mostly following attacks in insurgency-troubled parts of the North-East and other conflict zones, remain unaccounted for, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.

The update was given on Wednesday ahead of this year’s commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared, observed annually on August 30.

The latest figure represents a decline of about 6,000 from last year, when the ICRC reported that 23,659 missing persons were being sought by their families.

Giving the latest figure during an event in Yola, the Protection of Family Links Delegate at the ICRC Mubi office, Emeline Montel, said about 3,000 of the missing persons were from Adamawa State.

Montel clarified that the figures were based on cases documented by the ICRC, which assists families in tracing missing relatives and restoring contact where possible.

She spoke to journalists during a public sanitation exercise, street cleaning, remembrance and awareness campaign organised by relatives of missing persons and supported by the ICRC as part of activities leading up to the August 30 International Day of the Disappeared.

Relatives of missing persons who participated in the exercise said the community cleaning service was also aimed at drawing attention to the plight of thousands of families whose lives had been disrupted by the disappearance of their loved ones.

They said many of those missing were breadwinners and young people who disappeared while trying to build their lives.

A member of the Association of Families of Disappeared Persons, Habiba Mustapha, who participated in the street cleaning in Yola, said the fate of four of her relatives remained unknown.

Habiba, an indigene of Gwoza in Borno State who was displaced to Adamawa, said the disappearance of her relatives had subjected her family to prolonged emotional and economic hardship.

“The disappearance of my relatives is a continuing source of emotional stress and economic difficulty. Some of these missing persons were breadwinners. Our children are not going to school. Look at me here in a completely new environment,” she said.