From Gyang Bere, Jos
The Communication Coordinator of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Robin Waudo said the organization is working tirelessly to identify and reunite over 25,000 victims of violent conflicts who got missing in the ongoing violence in North Eastern Nigeria.
He explained that some of the missing persons have been identified and reunion with the families, saying the task of fishing out this people is a herculean one.
Waudo disclosed this in Jos at the end of a two day training workshop with Journalists on “Humanitarian reporting”, and said humanitarian reporting is very crucial as it identify victims of conflicts for succour.
“The workshop with the journalists has been very productive because we got to share about the work that ICRC is doing in the country and we have also hear from the Journalists the challenges that they go through and how we can collaborate together.
“In the North Eastern part of the country where we have being working to protect people who have been affected mostly by conflict, we are talking about people who have been displaced and living in IDPs camps without access to the basics, food, water, medication, security but also those seperated from their families and the need to reunite those people is very important.
“Because of the ongoing conflict in the North East for over 10 years now, there are over 25,000 people who have gone missing and have been reported to the ICRC by their own families, so we try to reunite these families and get them reconnected.
“This is a very big challenge and one of the problem is accessing the field where we can do the search, and we are doing this together with the Nigeria Red Cross society, we are also talking with the authorities in order to put the mechanism in place that can support the effort of finding the missing people.”
He described the relationship between ICRC and Journalists as key due to the importance of the media in framing issues of violent conflicts from the victim’s perspective.
“Humanitarian reporting is important because it put the victims of conflict and violence at the forefront, it talks about the effects of violence on the people and whether they are suffering; and the way this is presented by the Journalists is very important to making the public understand.”
He said the ICRC is working in the North East where there is violent conflicts that culminated to displacement of persons who are currently in IDPs camps, seeking for food, water, medication and security which the organization try to provide.