Red Cross: 48,000 People Confirmed Missing Across Africa 

NAIROBI - The International Committee of the Red Cross says more than 48,000 people are missing across Africa, and at least 21,600 are minors. Most of the registered disappearances — widely believed to be a fraction of the continent’s wider, undocumented humanitarian tragedy — are linked to armed conflict, violence, disasters and migration across the continent.   

The International Committee of the Red Cross says the number of people coming forward to report missing persons is on the rise in Africa.    Amaya Fernandez, the humanitarian organization’s adviser on the missing and their families for Western Africa, says the cause of the increasing numbers is two-fold.      “On one hand, [it's] due to the fact we are trying to register more systematically cases of missing persons throughout the region. But also, certainly, [it's] due to the increased violence and conflict experienced on the continent, which increases at the same time the likelihood of people going missing. Looking at our figures, almost half of the missing persons have been recorded underage and most of them are men. Among the women ... we can see that the majority are minors,” she said.