Over 17,000 people displaced by the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists across northeast Nigeria, are still missing, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), revealed.
The ICRC Spokesperson, Mr. Aliyu Dawobe disclosed this in Lagos yesterday at the end of a 2-day training for journalists on humanitarian reporting.
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Dawobe said the figures was initially over 24,000 people, but was slashed to over 17,000 for the fact that the ICRC had lost contacts of some of the affected families.
He, however, explained that the ICRC as parts of its humanitarian services is making frantic efforts to trace the missing persons and reunite them with their respective families.
“Crisis in the northeast has been ongoing for over 16 years. Millions of people are in need of food. Over 3m children of the affected families are malnourished.
“Lot of people have been separated with their love ones for over 10 years. Lot of people have been displaced in the region.
Dawobe said, Media as a communication toll has greater roles to play in informing the public about the terrified conditions of the affected persons.
He said the training was aimed at improving the skills of the journalists in humanitarian reporting.
“ICRC wants the media to take the lead in changing the pattern of reportage about people affected by conflicts in Nigeria.
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“We want the stories to be focused on the sufferings of the affected people with a view to alleviating their pains.
“We want the media to raise the concern about the sufferings of the people affected by the conflicts. To report real human angle stories that linked to the missing persons and the trauma they are facing,” he said.
Dawobe added that, 50 journalists were selected for the training, urging the beneficiaries to utilize the opportunity and improve on their reportage.
The ICRC image-maker said the training was to avail the journalists with access to human angle stories that will impact on the lives of victims of armed conflicts in Nigeria.
Also, speaking, a Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University Kano, Dr. Bala Muhammad said journalists need to be updated about the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) with a view to refocussing their pattern of reportage.
“The training is on the humanitarian journalism and conflict reporting. We want the journalists to find a way to ameliorate the sufferings and hardships faced by victims of insurgence, militancy and other crimes.
“We want journalists to always place the victims at the center of their stories. Human angles stories are the most important.
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“Most of What we normally do in Nigerian journalism is to make the perpetrators the champion of the news, but we want change that kind of mentality to make the victims the centre of the story and to see in what way can journalist help in making sure people are informed of where they can get water, where they can get succor.
“Journalism shouldn’t be only about what happened? We always Ned to ask why? Because context matters in journalism,” he concluded.
