For more than 15 years, Kashim Mohammed has hoped that his younger sister, Falmata Mohammed, is still alive.
asserted
sister → hop → years
Falmata disappeared in 2011 while travelling with her mother from Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, to Port Harcourt in the south.
asserted
Falmata → disappear → south
According to Kashim, the two women were abducted by unidentified gunmen.
uncertain
women → accord → gunmen
Years later, a man approached Kashim at Baga Road Market in Maiduguri with news that briefly revived the family’s hopes of finding the women.
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that → approach → women
He claimed Falmata had been found in Benin and was searching for her relatives.
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Falmata → claim → relatives
But the man disappeared without leaving contact details.
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man → disappear → details
Kashim said he has never been able to establish whether the information was genuine.
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information → say → ?
“From then until now, nobody knows anything about the man who brought the information,” he said.
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he → know → information
Kashim, 39, chairs the Association for the Well-being of Displaced and Missing Persons’ Families, a community organisation based in Bolori II, Ngarnam ward, Maiduguri.
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Kashim → chair → II
He said years of violence have torn his family apart.
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years → say → family
“As a result of the violence, I lost my sister from the same father,” he said.
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he → lose → father
Their father, Mohammed Kolo, worked at Maiduguri’s State Specialist Hospital.
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father → work → Hospital
Kashim said his father died at 60 from an illness he attributed to high blood pressure without learning what had happened to his daughter.
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what → say → daughter
Kolo had refused to abandon hope that she would return.
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she → refuse → hope
“Our father always said, ‘Wherever she is, I believe my daughter is alive,’” Kashim recalled.
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Kashim → say → ?
A brother still searching
For Muhammad Alhaji Bashir, the disappearance of his elder brother, Adam Muhammad Bashir, known as Bakura, has left a similar void.
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disappearance → search → void
Muhammad, 29, said Bakura went missing around 2012 or 2013 when Muhammad was about 14.
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Muhammad → say → 2012
His brother, then believed to be in his early 20s, sold cosmetics in a Maiduguri market and was studying civil engineering at Ramat Polytechnic, according to Muhammad.
uncertain
brother → believe → Muhammad
“I sincerely lost my brother as a result of the Boko Haram crisis,” Muhammad said.
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Muhammad → lose → crisis
Boko Haram’s armed rebellion began in northeastern Nigeria in 2009.
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rebellion → begin → 2009
The conflict has devastated communities through attacks, abductions and displacement, leaving families searching for relatives whose fates remain unknown.
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fates → devastate → relatives
Muhammad said Bakura’s family searched across Maiduguri.
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family → say → Maiduguri
A rehabilitation centre offered them some hope.
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centre → offer → hope
“Whenever we heard that rescued people had been brought to the rehabilitation centre in Bulumkutu, we went there with Bakura’s pictures, but unfortunately, nobody recognised him
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nobody → hear → him
,” Muhammad said.
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Muhammad → say → ?
Muhammad said his father and stepmother, who was Bakura’s mother, later died from illnesses the family attributed to hypertension.
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family → say → hypertension
He and other relatives continue to search, without confirmation of whether Bakura is alive or dead.
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Bakura → continue → confirmation
Thousands of families, thousands of questions
The two families’ experiences reflect the uncertainty facing relatives of people who have disappeared during more than a decade of conflict in northeastern Nigeria.
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who → reflect → Nigeria
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), working with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, has supported efforts to trace missing people and reconnect separated families.
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Committee → work → families
Local advocates for missing people cited an estimate of 17,000 people missing across northern Nigeria, many of them linked to the conflict involving Boko Haram and its aftermath.
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many → miss → Haram
Kashim said his association’s records indicated that about 10,000 people are missing in Borno State alone.
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people → say → State
He added that many families have yet to register their missing relatives.
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families → add → relatives
The sources for the estimates cited by advocates and the association, their geographical coverage, reporting periods and methods of compilation have not been independently established for this article.
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sources → cite → article
Behind the estimates are families who have spent years searching, parents who have died without learning what happened to their children and children growing up without a parent.
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what → spend → parent
Some people reportedly disappeared during attacks on their communities.
uncertain
people → disappear → communities
Others became separated from relatives while fleeing violence or travelling between towns
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Others → separate → towns
Families search hospitals, displacement camps and centres receiving people rescued from conflict areas, often following leads that prove impossible to verify.
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that → search → leads
Even when names, photographs and personal details are submitted to organisations involved in tracing missing people, locating relatives can take time.
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locating → submit → time
An association born out of loss
Kashim said his search for Falmata helped motivate him and other affected families to establish their association in 2023.
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search → bear → 2023
He said the organisation obtained registration with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission in 2025.
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organisation → say → 2025
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
