Home affairs, immigration, safety and security minister Albert Kawana says 201 people have been reported missing to the police countrywide over the last five years.
Kawana revealed this in parliament recently while providing a response to questions posed by Landless People’s movement (LPM) parliamentarian Utaara Mootu.
Mootu requested that Kawana provide a detailed report on missing persons’ statistics and why the police are decelerating the solving of missing persons’ cases.
Kawana said the Khomas region recorded the highest number of missing persons, at 104, followed by the Erongo region, with 26 recorded cases.
The Oshana region recorded 17 cases, followed by Hardap with 12 cases.
Other regions recorded between 0 and 11 cases.
“The year 2021 recorded the highest number of missing persons, with 69, followed by 2023 (January to September), which recorded 57 missing persons countrywide,” Kawana said.
According to Kawana, of the 57 people reported missing in 2023, 20 were found, 15 were found alive and five were dead.
“This depicts a found rate of approximately 35%. Approximately 22% of the missing persons were juveniles,” he said.
Kawana urged the public to report any cases of missing persons to any police station in all 14 regions of the country.
“When a missing person is reported, details of the missing person must include his/her picture and recorded by an officer in the charge office at the police station. Such information is recorded in a missing persons’ register,” Kawana added.
He said the person making the missing person’s report is required to provide a statement detailing the circumstances in which the person went missing.
“A file is normally opened and handed over to an investigator, who in turn will gather more information on the matter from other witnesses and further provide such information to the public relations division,” Kawana said.
He highlighted that a major challenge for the police is the public’s failure to update the police station where they reported a missing person, leading to inaccurate status records.
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