Families in Northeastern Nigeria Still Search for Missing Relatives

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Families in northeastern Nigeria continue to search for relatives who disappeared during years of conflict, with many still unable to establish whether their loved ones are alive or dead.

Among them is 39-year-old Kashim Mohammed, whose younger sister, Falmata Mohammed, disappeared in 2011 while travelling with their mother from Maiduguri to Port Harcourt. Kashim said unidentified gunmen abducted the two women during the journey.

More than 15 years later, the family has no confirmed information about Falmata’s whereabouts. Kashim said their father, Mohammed Kolo, died without learning what had happened to his daughter.

“Our father always said, ‘Wherever she is, I believe my daughter is alive,’” Kashim recalled.

At one point, an unidentified man told Kashim that Falmata had been found in Benin and was trying to locate her relatives. Kashim said the man disappeared without leaving contact details, and he was unable to verify the claim.

“From then until now, nobody knows anything about the man who brought the information,” he said.

“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,” Kashim added in an appeal to his sister.

Another family’s unanswered search

Muhammad Alhaji Bashir, 29, is also searching for his elder brother, Adam Muhammad Bashir, known as Bakura. Muhammad said Bakura went missing around 2012 or 2013.

Before his disappearance, Bakura sold cosmetics at Baga Road Market in Maiduguri and studied civil engineering at Ramat Polytechnic. When the family heard that people rescued from the conflict had been taken to the rehabilitation centre in Bulumkutu, they went there with his photographs. Nobody recognised him.

“I sincerely lost my brother as a result of the Boko Haram crisis,” Muhammad said.

He said the family’s father and stepmother later died from illnesses the family attributed to hypertension. The circumstances surrounding Bakura’s disappearance remain unresolved.

Community support for affected families

Kashim now chairs the Association for the Well-being of Displaced and Missing Persons’ Families. He said his search for Falmata helped motivate the group’s creation in 2023. The association obtained registration with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission in 2025.

The organisation meets monthly to exchange information and discuss members’ circumstances. Kashim said it was also assisting about 600 orphaned children from families affected by the conflict.

“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.

Some families have reportedly lost eight or nine relatives. Kashim said many people remain unregistered, making it difficult to build a complete record of those missing.

Local advocates have cited an estimate of about 17,000 missing people across northern Nigeria, many linked to the conflict involving Boko Haram and its aftermath. Kashim said the association’s records indicated that about 10,000 people were missing in Borno State. The figures, however, have not been independently established, and the sources, geographical coverage, reporting periods and methods used to compile them are unclear.

Tracing efforts continue

The International Committee of the Red Cross, working with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, has supported efforts to trace missing people and reconnect families separated by the violence. Families may provide names, photographs and personal details to organisations involved in tracing, although searches can take time.

In 2024, floods submerged parts of Ngarnam and destroyed photographs that families had kept to help identify missing relatives, according to Kashim.

Boko Haram’s armed rebellion began in northeastern Nigeria in 2009. The conflict has since involved attacks, abductions and displacement, with people also becoming separated from relatives while fleeing violence or travelling between towns.

“We are now suffering because of the harsh living conditions,” Kashim said, describing the continuing hardship faced by families of missing people.