Families Protest Over Missing Engineers' Fate

Family members of five engineers missing since a 2021 abduction in Ebonyi State staged a protest Monday at Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja, demanding clarity on their loved ones' fate nearly four years after the incident. The engineers, employed by NELAN Consulting Engineers, vanished on November 3, 2021, while working on the Abakaliki Ring Road project in the Effium community of Ohaukwu Local Government Area, amid a violent communal clash between the Effium and Ezza Effium communities.

The missing workers were identified as Nelson Onyemeh, Ernest Edeani, Ikechukwu Ejiofor, Samuel Aneke, and Stanley Nwazulum. They were supervising construction on the road, a project financed by the African Development Bank to alleviate traffic in the state capital and enhance regional connectivity. The abduction occurred during heightened insecurity in the area, where the conflict led to numerous deaths, widespread property damage estimated in billions of naira, and general chaos that disrupted daily life and infrastructure work.

Protesters, including the engineers' wives and relatives supported by civil society groups, carried placards urging federal intervention and...