Where are they?

The report examines the crisis of missing persons in Africa, documenting nearly 44,000 cases through the ICRC as of 2020. It identifies armed conflict, other situations of violence, and migration as primary drivers, noting that men and children are disproportionately affected. Families face severe psychosocial trauma, economic hardship, and legal hurdles due to a lack of domestic frameworks for declaring absence. The document advocates for the establishment of national information bureaus, improved medico-legal capacity for body identification, and the integration of missing persons into transitional justice processes.

• As of 2020, the ICRC documented nearly 44,000 missing persons in Africa, though this is described as a small fraction of a larger, undocumented humanitarian tragedy.
• Demographic data shows that men and children are most frequently reported missing; men account for over 61% of ICRC's search cases in Africa, and more than 45% of documented missing persons are under 18 years old.
• The loss of a relative leads to significant economic distress for families, with high percentages in Senegal (92%) and Cameroon (93%) reporting a loss of income.
• Families experience 'ambiguous loss'—a highly stressful state caused by the lack of proof of finality regarding a relative's fate—which manifests as anxiety, mood disorders, and physical health problems.
• Many African countries lack domestic legislation to provide a legal status for missing persons, forcing families to seek death certificates to access property or inheritance, which often conflicts with their hope that the relative is alive.
• Migration routes, particularly those crossing the Mediterranean or heading toward the Gulf countries, significantly increase the risk of family separation due to the securitisation of borders and the use of perilous routes.
• The report recommends that states establish National Information Bureaus (NIBs) and improve medico-legal systems to ensure the proper management and identification of the dead.
• The document argues that the issue of missing persons must be integrated into transitional justice processes, such as truth-seeking and reconciliation, to address the suffering of post-conflict societies.

APA

Maunganidze, O. A. (2021). Where are they? Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-33.pdf

Chicago

Maunganidze, Ottilia Anna. Where are they? Institute for Security Studies, 2021. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-33.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Maunganidze |first1=Ottilia Anna |title=Where are they? |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=April 2021 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-33.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{maunganidze2021where, author = {Maunganidze, Ottilia Anna}, title = {{Where are they?}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-33.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }