Many thousands of Africans have disappeared in conflict
The Red Cross tries hard to find them
When The jihadists of Boko Haram attacked Lydia Adamu’s village in north-east Nigeria in 2015, her parents and their six children fled—with nothing. At first they seemed relatively lucky, reaching the safety of Yola, a city hundreds of kilometres to the south. When word came that their village was quiet, her parents ventured back to salvage a few belongings. What happened next is murky. All Ms Adamu knows is that “armed men came again, shooting. They seized my parents on motorbikes and disappeared.” She has never seen them again and has no idea if they are dead or alive.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “The disappeared”
From the April 15th 2023 edition
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