A mass grave containing two dozen unidentified bodies was discovered in the coastal city of Sirte, once controlled by ISIS, a Libyan government agency said July 15. The National Authority for Searching & Identifying Missing People, a body of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, said its team is recovering the 24 bodies found under destroyed buildings in the district of al-Kambo. No details were provided on a potential date when the bodies were interred. However, Sirte was a stronghold for ISIS from February 2015 to December 2016, when the militants were driven out by US-backed forces loyal to the Tripoli government. (AP) A mass grave was similarly uncovered in the city in October 2022.
Another mass grave is meanwhile reported to have been found in the desert along the Libya-Tunisia border, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk confirmed in an address to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on July 9. This was the second such mass grave found on Libya’s borderlands this year. In March, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported the discovery of the bodies of at least 65 presumed migrants in southwest Libya. The Missing Migrant Project has recorded 15,682 missing migrants along the African route since 2014. According to Türk, “the dehumanization of these individuals who are in a vulnerable situation continues to take place at the hands of both state and non-state actors, often working in collusion.” (Jurist)
