The Nigeria office of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been bombarded with 2,353 requests to trace missing persons but located only about seven out of every 100 missing persons, a report this morning said.

The report, by the Abuja-based Daily Trust, quoted the Head of delegation of the Red Cross in Nigeria, Karl Mattli, as saying in Abuja on Tuesday at a ceremony to mark the International Day of Missing Persons that the organisation located about 315 persons and reunited 193 of them. The report cited one Ibrahim Aminu who was reunited with his grandmother, Falmata Ahmaduram, years after their family was torn apart by Boko Haram attacks.

The report also quoted Karl as saying that Red Cross has opened 726 new tracing files for people looking for missing relatives.

He was further quoted as disclosing that under a programme for restoring family links across the Lake Chad region, 472 free phone calls opened to people separated from their families and 146 family messages were facilitated among separated relatives.

•Photo shows Karl Mattli, Head of delegation of the Red Cross in Nigeria.

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