ISTANBUL 

The number of people recorded as missing by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has risen by nearly 70% in the past five years, the organization said Friday.

“From Sudan to Ukraine, from Syria to Colombia, the trend is clear: the surging number of missing persons provides a stark reminder that conflict parties and those who support them are failing to protect people during war,” said Pierre Krahenbuhl, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Figures released by the Family Links Network, an ICRC-led initiative working with National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide, show that the number of missing persons climbed to almost 284,400 in 2024 from 169,500 in 2019.

The organization noted that the figure represents only cases officially documented by families, and the real number of people unaccounted for is likely far higher.

While more than 16,000 people were located and over 7,000 were reunited with their families in 2024, the ICRC said “the tragedy of the missing is not inevitable.”

Stronger measures to prevent separation, protect detainees and properly manage the dead could spare countless families “a lifetime of anguish,” Krahenbuhl added.

The ICRC stressed that international humanitarian law obliges parties to conflict to avoid separating families, provide information about detainees and ensure that the fate of the dead is known.

“Behind every number is a mother, father, child or sibling whose absence leaves a wound that statistics cannot capture,” Krahenbuhl said.

In 2024 alone, nearly 90,500 Red Cross messages were delivered and about 2.3 million phone calls were facilitated by the Family Links Network to help reconnect families separated by war, disaster and displacement.