Nigeria’s missing: Families in the northeast still wait for answers

What the report says

In northeastern Nigeria, families continue to search for relatives who went missing during years of violence linked largely to the Boko Haram conflict and its aftermath, according to Al Jazeera. The report focuses on two cases in Maiduguri, Borno State: Kashim Mohammed’s younger sister, Falmata Mohammed, who disappeared in 2011 while traveling with her mother, and Muhammad Alhaji Bashir’s elder brother, Adam Muhammad Bashir, known as Bakura, who went missing around 2012 or 2013.

Both families say they have spent years following leads that never produced answers. Kashim, now chairing a local association for families of missing and displaced people, said a man once claimed Falmata had been found in Benin, but the tip could not be verified. Muhammad said relatives searched markets and rehabilitation centres for Bakura after hearing that rescued people had been brought there, but no one identified him.

The article says these personal cases reflect a wider problem across northern Nigeria, where aid groups and local advocates say many people remain unaccounted for after attacks, abductions and displacement. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Nigerian Red Cross have supported tracing efforts, while family groups also try to match names, photographs and reports from rescued people.

Al Jazeera reports that Kashim’s association, formed in 2023 and later registered in 2025, also helps affected children and families facing hardship. The piece notes that flood damage in Maiduguri in 2024 destroyed some family records and photographs, making identification even harder. For relatives, the search is now about learning what happened and whether their missing loved ones are still alive.