YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian officials say they have reunited just seven children with parents lost in the chaos of attacks in the northeastern Islamic insurgency. Hundreds more children remain alone.
Sa’ad Bello, the coordinator of five camps hosting scores of lonely children, says some of their parents probably have been killed.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the past year and more than 1 million people are displaced within Nigeria because of the 5-year insurgency, according to the Washington-based Council for Foreign Relations. Hundreds of thousands of others have sought refuge across borders.
Bello says they have reunited seven children but 138 remain in five camps in Yola, the capital of Adamawa state. Red Cross officials say they are working to count hundreds more unaccompanied children in other northeastern states.