Northeast Nigeria: Families Endure Agonizing Wait for Answers on Missing Loved Ones

For over 15 years, Kashim Mohammed has held onto the hope that his younger sister, Falmata Mohammed, is still alive. Falmata vanished in 2011 while traveling with her mother from Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, to Port Harcourt in the south. According to Kashim, unidentified gunmen abducted the two women. Years later, a man approached Kashim at Baga Road Market in Maiduguri with information that briefly rekindled his family's hopes of finding the women, claiming Falmata had been found in Benin and was seeking her relatives. However, the man disappeared without providing contact details, leaving Kashim uncertain about the veracity of the information.

"From then until now, nobody knows anything about the man who brought the information," he stated. Kashim, 39, leads the Association for the Well-being of Displaced and Missing Persons’ Families, a community organization based in Bolori II, Ngarnam ward, Maiduguri. He described how years of violence have fractured his family. "As a result of the violence, I lost my sister from the same father," he said. Their father, Mohammed Kolo, who worked at Maiduguri’s State Specialist Hospital, died at 60 from an illness he attributed to high blood pressure, never learning his daughter's fate. Kolo had refused to relinquish hope for her return, with Kashim recalling, "Our father always said, ‘Wherever she is, I believe my daughter is alive.’"

For Muhammad Alhaji Bashir, the disappearance of his elder brother, Adam Muhammad Bashir, known as Bakura, has created a similar void. Muhammad, 29, stated that Bakura went missing around 2012 or 2013 when Muhammad was approximately 14. His brother, then believed to be in his early 20s, was selling cosmetics in a Maiduguri market and studying civil engineering at Ramat Polytechnic. "I sincerely lost my brother as a result of the Boko Haram crisis," Muhammad said. Boko Haram's armed rebellion, which began in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, has devastated communities through attacks, abductions, and displacement, leaving families in a perpetual search for relatives whose fates remain unknown.

Muhammad recounted that Bakura's family searched extensively across Maiduguri. A rehabilitation center offered a glimmer of hope. "Whenever we heard that rescued people had been brought to the rehabilitation centre in Bulumkutu, we went there with Bakura’s pictures, but unfortunately, nobody recognised him," Muhammad said. Muhammad added that his father and stepmother, who was Bakura’s mother, later succumbed to illnesses the family attributed to hypertension. He and other relatives continue their search, without confirmation of Bakura's status.

The experiences of these two families mirror the uncertainty faced by relatives of individuals who have disappeared during over a decade of conflict in northeastern Nigeria. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in collaboration with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, has been instrumental in supporting efforts to trace missing persons and reunite separated families. Local advocates for the missing have cited an estimate of 17,000 people missing across northern Nigeria, with many cases linked to the conflict involving Boko Haram and its aftermath. Kashim indicated that his association's records suggest approximately 10,000 people are missing in Borno State alone, noting that many families have yet to register their missing relatives. The sources for these estimates, their geographical scope, reporting periods, and compilation methods have not been independently verified for this article.

Behind these figures are families who have dedicated years to searching, parents who have passed away without knowing their children's fate, and children growing up without parental guidance. Some individuals reportedly disappeared during attacks on their communities, while others became separated from their families while fleeing violence or traveling between towns. Families diligently search hospitals, displacement camps, and centers receiving individuals rescued from conflict zones, often pursuing leads that prove unverifiable. Even when names, photographs, and personal details are submitted to tracing organizations, locating relatives can be a protracted process.

Kashim explained that his own search for Falmata inspired him and other affected families to establish their association in 2023. The organization obtained registration with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission in 2025. Members convene monthly to exchange information and discuss their situations. Kashim mentioned that some families have reported losing as many as eight or nine relatives. "In our community of Bolori II, we have many families who lost their relatives as a result of years of violence that ravaged northeastern Nigeria," he said. The association occasionally receives notices from the Red Cross containing names and details of missing persons, providing potential leads for families, though not necessarily confirming a reunion. The association also provides support to children affected by these disappearances, currently assisting about 600 orphaned children from affected families. Some receive education, while others have dropped out due to their relatives' inability to afford tuition or other basic necessities. "We are now suffering because of the harsh living conditions," Kashim stated, adding that the ICRC has distributed relief items to some families. When a missing person is a parent or the primary breadwinner, surviving relatives face the dual challenge of coping with lost income while striving to provide food, shelter, and education for children. Consequently, the association's work has expanded beyond tracing missing individuals to assisting families in managing the hardships resulting from these disappearances.

The search has become even more challenging for some families following devastating floods that inundated parts of Maiduguri in 2024. Kashim reported that floodwaters submerged sections of Ngarnam, destroying photographs that families used to help identify missing relatives. Photographs are crucial for families attempting to identify individuals who have been rescued, displaced, or found in unfamiliar communities. In their absence, relatives must rely on names, physical descriptions, and memories. Kashim noted that some families now possess little more than remembered details and surviving records to aid in identifying their relatives. The floods introduced an additional impediment to searches already complicated by years of conflict, displacement, and pervasive uncertainty.

For Kashim, locating Falmata would resolve a question that has tormented his family since 2011. His father passed away believing she might still return, and the family has never confirmed the accuracy of the report regarding her discovery in Benin. Muhammad's search for Bakura continues without the parents who once assisted him. Both families are appealing to anyone who might possess information about their missing relatives. For them, finding an answer signifies more than just ending a search; it means finally understanding what happened to someone whose absence has profoundly shaped their lives for years. Kashim's message to his sister remains a heartfelt plea for a reunion that his family has long awaited: "Falmata Mohammed, if you are alive anywhere in this world, we are the family of late Mohammed Kolo in Bolori II, Ngarnam. We are waiting for you."