Libyan authorities have discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of 28 sub-Saharan migrants in the southeastern district of Kufra, near a site where they were allegedly detained and tortured, the attorney general’s office said on Sunday.
It said the grave was found after a raid on a human trafficking site, where authorities freed 76 sub-Saharan migrants who had been detained and tortured. Reports said the operation took place late Saturday.
The raid targeted “a gang whose members deliberately deprived illegal immigrants of their freedom, tortured them, and subjected them to cruel, humiliating, and inhumane treatment”, the office said in a statement.
“The cost of inadequate action is evident in the increasing human deaths and the disturbing conditions migrants find themselves in,” the IOM had said.
The bodies had been “buried in the vicinity of the place of detention” and three people had been arrested, “one Libyan and two foreigners”, it added.
Last month, authorities arrested two people accused of torturing and detaining 263 irregular migrants to extort ransoms in El Wahat, eastern Libya.
