***Urges journalists to put victims at the centre of reporting.

Family separation remains one of the severest consequences of armed conflict in Nigeria, with thousands of families trapped in uncertainty while dealing with the emotional, social, and economic consequences of separation, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have said.

Over 17,000 out of the initial 24,000 remain active cases of missing persons traced by the RC in Nigeria.

The figure, however, revealed other shocking details as families of 7,000 persons became unreachable, therefore making search for their missing loved ones difficult to follow.
This was revealed at a two-day Media Roundtable on Humanitarian Reporting held at the Art Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos from September 14 to 15, 2026.

The journalist drawn from Lagos, Maiduguri, Kano, Abuja and others were urged journalists to put victims and affected communities at the centre of conflict and humanitarian reporting.
Journalists were also urged to abreast themselves with International Humanitarian Law (IHL), key into humanitarian reporting, so that we can find a way to ameliorate the suffering and the hardships faced by many of the people who are victims of insurgency in Nigeria, militancy, and other difficulties.

The journalist were taught on International Humanitarian Law & Journalist, Journalists and Conflict reporting in Nigeria, history, principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Panorama, exposed to ICRC/NRCS activities in Nigeria, Operational and public communications and others.

Public Relations Officer, ICRC, Aliyu Dawobe, said the objective of the training was to highlight humanitarian stories to journalists and for journalists to have access to more human-related stories in conflict times.

“A lot of people are suffering from not just food and medication, but also, they are facing a lot of other challenges that are linked to trauma, sexual violence, and others things. So, we want the media to take the lead in promoting some of these stories coming out from affected people so that possibly we can have a reduced or a drop on some of these humanitarian issues, and also to raise the concern of the people about what is going on with people that are affected by armed conflict and violence in Nigeria, specifically in the Northeast where conflicts has been going on for over 15 years.

When asked about the key areas, he said: “The key area is mainly to identify human-angle stories that link to missing people and the trauma they pass through, food hunger crisis and the malnutrition cases because they don’t have access to farmlands and businesses. The more they get back to their normal businesses, send back their school children to schools, the better for all of us.

When asked about the body’s assessment of the crisis, he said: “The Northeast conflict is very precarious. Thousands of people are still affected, millions of people are still in need of food, more than three million people are also affected by malnutrition, so, it’s pathetic situation that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

“A lot of people have been separated from their families for over 10 years so, these are critical areas that we have to look at. Journalists also need to look at to be able to bring out stories.

Speaking to journalist on the need for reports to focus more on the victims than the numbers, he said: “When we concentrate more on figures, people feel that figures are the key things. It’s good to know the number of percent or the percentage of people affected, but it’s also need to know the number of people that are unable to have access to medication, unable to have access to food, and unable to have access to being reunited with their families. Trauma cases are ongoing, so it’s also good to also highlight the international humanitarian law so that journalists can take this up as well, so that all the armed actors would be able to be informed about the International Humanitarian Law and hopefully to respect it. And this will reduce the sufferings to civilians.”

“The ICRC is mandated to work during conflict times to relieve the sufferings of those affected. We understand the key role media play in identify stories that are related to the humanitarian situation we are in in Nigeria and decided to invite 50 journalists for the media roundtables on humanitarian reporting.”
Speaking also, a lecturer of Mass Communication at Bayero University, Kano, Dr Bala Muhammad, said that while human-angle stories are the most important stories to tell, the Nigerian media makes the perpetrators the champion of the news and what is done by the perpetrators.

“We want to change that kind of mentality, to make the victim the centre of the story, and to see in what way journalists can help in making sure people are informed of where they can get help, get good water, where they can get food and others.
“Journalism shouldn’t be only about what happens. We always have to ask about why it happens. The “why” is very important because context matters in writing, in journalism, in broadcasting, and others.

Most journalists are not aware of many aspects of international humanitarian law, humanitarian journalism and conflict reporting there are so many things we need to know.
“In the two-day affair, we were able to bring about what humanitarian journalism is, and do not forget your humanity in the search for excellence as a journalist. You have always to go and ensure that the human is the centre of your story.
“Animals help other animals in distress. So human beings should help human beings in distress, and journalists should lead in that by informing, guiding, and leading other human beings to be humans first before they are anything else.
The public affairs commentator in his advice to end farmer-herder crisis, he said: “We did a mapping of conflict in Nigeria and the recurrent problem is farmer-herders clashes.

Farmer-herder crisis is not peculiar to Nigeria, it’s an African problem. It beholds on the African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to bring members together to discuss the issue and find a way to solve the problem because solving the problem in Nigeria means the problem still exists because it’s yet to be solved in Niger Republic, Mali, Chat, Burkina Faso. Most people think deploying men to secure the border can do the magic; cows don’t care about border. The African nations must sit together and solve the problem, it’s the only solution and tackle them as an international, regional problem.