“Alarming Levels of Enforced Disappearances Across Libya Threaten National Reconciliation,” UNSMIL says.

Tripoli, 31 August 2025 (Lana)The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed its alarm at the pervasive and systematic practice of enforced disappearances across the country, warning of its serious repercussions on the human rights environment, political life, and prospects for peace and national reconciliation.

This came in a press statement issued by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya on the Occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, where the mission stated that this phenomenon is continued targeting of political actors and perceived opponents, journalists, human rights defenders, activists, state officials, and ordinary citizens.

“The persistence of incommunicado detention, the existence of unofficial detention facilities where torture and ill-treatment are widespread, and the routine denial of due process feed into this grave pattern,” it said.

“Two members of the House of Representatives remain missing to this day. In May, mass graves and unidentified remains were uncovered in Tripoli, including within former detention facilities, exposing the systematic nature of enforced disappearances,” it added.

The statement concluded that these crimes create a climate of fear that stifles civic space, entrenches impunity, and undermines the conditions necessary for peace, credible elections, and national reconciliation.

=Lana=