- The remains of 34 Ethiopian Christians executed in Libya by Daesh in 2015 have been exhumed from a mass grave
- A video posted on social media in April 2015 appeared to show Daesh militants shooting and beheading the Christians
TRIPOLI: The bodies of 34 Ethiopian Christians executed in Libya by Daesh in 2015 have been exhumed from a mass grave, Libyan authorities said on Monday.
The grave was unearthed on Sunday, after information was obtained during investigations of arrested Daesh members, the interior ministry’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said on its Facebook page.
A video posted on social media in April 2015 appeared to show Daesh militants shooting and beheading the Christians, who were wearing orange jumpsuits, on a beach.
The CID displayed drone images of the mass grave, which appeared to be on a farm near the coastal city of Sirte.
The bodies will be repatriated to Ethiopia once “domestic and interntional legal procedures are completed”, it said. Hundreds of thousands of people have migrated from sub-Saharan Africa to Libya in recent years, many hoping to eventually reach Europe.
Daesh took control of Sirte, the hometown of Libya’s former leader Muammar Qaddafi, in 2015 and lost the city late in 2016 to local forces backed by US air strikes.