Kuwait
On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, which it annexed two days later. After seven months of Iraqi occupation, a US-led coalition evicted the Iraqi forces.
During the occupation, Kuwait contends that more than 600 of its citizens went missing, while Iraq, for its part contends that more than 1,000 Iraqis disappeared in Kuwait.
A Tripartite Commission, composed of representatives of Iraq, Kuwait, and members of the coalition, and chaired by the ICRC, was established to ascertain the fate of the missing. In cooperation with the Kuwaiti and Iraqi governments, ICMP has assisted the government of Kuwait in securing DNA-based identification of victims.
On 28 February 2022 the UN Security Council welcomed Kuwait’s conclusion of the identification process of missing persons and prisoners of war found at a burial site in Samawa in Iraq in March 2019 and January 2020, based on DNA analyses. The Council noted that 59 sets of remains were identified as Kuwaiti and third-country nationals and that Kuwait transferred to Iraq the six sets of remains that were not matched against its missing persons database.
