The number of people missing in conflicts around the world is at its highest ever level, with more than 56,000 new cases recorded in 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned Wednesday.

"The ICRC is registering unprecedented numbers of missing persons," said Fernando Fornaris, the body's humanitarian affairs adviser, at a United Nations General Assembly session devoted to the issue.

Some 56,559 new missing persons were registered in 2024, bringing the total number of cases currently monitored by the ICRC to almost 255,000, according to figures released on Wednesday.

"This is the highest increase in at least twenty years. An unprecedented number of large-scale conflicts and the disregard for international humanitarian law are resulting in vast numbers of people going missing," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the meeting.

"The pain of not knowing the fate of loved ones is one of the worst things that can ever happen to anyone. It never eases, no matter how much time has passed," he added.

Conflict, the focus of the UN meeting, sees people go missing because they were killed, tortured, mistreated, kidnapped, detained or fleeing the fighting, he said.

But to those figures must be added people disappeared by military dictatorships or as the result of state repression, or those who disappear along migratory routes, he added.

"The scale is enormous. Figures range from tens of thousands of people missing in some countries, to well over 100,000 in others," Turk said.

Over the past 45 years a working group under the UN Human Rights Council has dealt with more than 62,000 enforced disappearances, he said, adding: "Sadly, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg."