During the week, the Libyan Director of the Department of Search and Identification of Missing Persons announced that 3 more bodies were found as a result of the excavations in Tarhuna. In the statement, it was stated that 3 bodies were excavated from the graves discovered on July 7 and that detailed studies were carried out.
The Head of the Institution, Lotfi Tawfik, stated that the bodies found were men and that 2 bodies were in the same cemetery. According to the data of the institution, it was stated that the total number of casualties in the country was 3,650 and that 350 of them were buried in Tarhuna.
The city of Tarhuna, which was located in a crucial position during the invasion attempt launched against the Libyan capital Tripoli in April 2019 by the leader of the eastern militia forces, Khalifa Haftar, was liberated from Haftar’s forces in June 2020. The name of the Kaniyat family, which had control of the city until the latter date, was involved in numerous war crimes and human rights violations. Many mass graves were found after Haftar troops were driven out of the city. More than 110 bodies have been found thus far, and more are found during excavation operations.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) had announced that an investigation was opened into the mass graves in Tarhuna on 22 June 2020, within the resources reached. Since then, numerous sanctions have been imposed against the Kaniyat family.
