Bodies of migrants discovered buried in mass graves in Libya
On February 7th, Libyan authorities uncovered around 50 bodies from two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert city of Kufra. According to AfricaNews, the victims are thought to all be migrants, marking the most recent tragedy involving people attempting to travel to Europe via Libya.
Libyan authorities posted images of the recovery effort on Facebook, depicting police officers and medics digging in the sand, uncovering dead bodies that had been wrapped in blankets.
This is not the first time migrant mass graves have been discovered in Libya. In 2024, the bodies of at least 65 migrants were found in the Shuayrif region.
Libya is a main transit hub for migrants from Africa and the Middle East on journey’s to Europe. Human traffickers have used the historical conflict and disorder in the region to smuggle migrants undetected across Libya’s borders.
This comes shortly after the EU was accused in January of complicity in the abuse inflicted of migrants sold to Libyan gangs by Tunisian authorities. These human rights abuses included sexual slavery, physical abuse and cramped and ill-resourced prisons. In January it also came out that 2275 migrants were left unaccounted for in the Mediterranean Sea in 2024, a route primarily used by migrants leaving Libya for Italy.
AfricaNews, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Maghrebi
