By Ebi Kesiena
Libyan authorities have uncovered nearly 50 bodies in two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, marking another tragic incident involving migrants and refugees attempting to reach Europe through North Africa.
According to a statement released on Sunday, the security directorate reported that the first mass grave, discovered on Friday at a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, contained 19 bodies. The remains have been taken for autopsy.
Mohamed al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra, revealed that a second mass grave, containing at least 30 bodies, was found following a raid on a migrant detention centre. Survivor testimonies suggest that up to 70 people may have been buried at the site, and authorities are continuing their search.
Al-Abreen, a charity supporting migrants and refugees in eastern and southern Libya, stated that some of the victims had been shot before being buried.
Mass graves of asylum seekers have previously been discovered in Libya, a major transit hub for migrants from Africa and the Middle East seeking passage to Europe.
Last year, authorities uncovered at least 65 migrant bodies in the Shuayrif region, south of Tripoli.
For over a decade, human traffickers have exploited Libya’s instability, smuggling migrants across its borders with Chad, Niger, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Rights groups and UN agencies have long documented severe abuse of asylum seekers in Libya, including forced labour, beatings, rape, and torture, often as part of extortion schemes to extract money from families before allowing migrants to board traffickers’ boats.
Those intercepted and returned to Libya face further abuse in government-run detention centres, where they endure torture, sexual violence, and extortion, according to human rights organisations and UN experts.
Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed leader Muammar Gaddafi. Since then, the oil-rich nation has been divided between rival governments in the east and west, each supported by various armed groups and foreign powers.
