By Oyintari Ben
According to Libyan authorities, 42 unidentified dead bodies have reportedly been found in a mass grave in the northern coastal city of Sirte.
In a statement released on Sunday, the General Authority for Research and Identification of Missing Persons, stated that it had been informed by the local prosecutor’s office about a mass grave discovered near the Ibn Khaldoun School in the Jiza al-Bahriya neighbourhood.
It claimed that 42 unidentified bodies were excavated over two weeks at the school.
According to the statement, the bodies were transferred to a hospital to gather samples from the bones before being buried.
The bodies are suspected to belong to persons who were slain by the terrorist organization Daesh/ISIS, which seized the city for more than a year, from August 2015 to December 2016.
In war-torn Libya, mass graves are frequently found, particularly in Tarhuna city, a former stronghold of warlord Khalifa Haftar.
Official sources in Libya claim that between April 2019 and June 2020, Haftar’s militias and allied troops perpetrated war crimes and acts of genocide.
