More than a decade of conflicts and violence has led to the fragmentation of the society and territory and the destruction of infrastructure. Therefore, the capacity of the population to move about and to communicate with their relatives is limited. Moreover, the lack of financial resources of vulnerable people deprives them of easy access to private means of communication, which are available mainly in big cities. Consequently, the population needs the Red Cross / Red Crescent network to restore and maintain family links.

Working in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Somali Red Crescent Society has 24 offices in all regions of the country working to help Somali people to re-establish and maintain ties with their relatives.

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The "Joint ICRC / BBC Missing Person Programme" is a 15-minute programme broadcast six times a week by the BBC Somalia short-wave radio service on which names of persons being sought and enquirers are read out. On Saturday and Thursday, it is broadcasted from 5:15 - 5:30 pm, while form Sunday to Wednesay, it is usually broadcased form 5:30 - 5:45 pm.

Tracing requests are used when other methods of restoring contact have proved unsuccessful, and minimum information serving to identify both the person being sought and the enquirer are available.