UN says fate of 315 missing after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait remains unknown

The fate of 315 Kuwaitis and nationals of other countries who disappeared after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait remains unknown more than 35 years later, the UN Security Council has been told.

Marie Yamashita, the Senior Representative for the implementation of Security Council resolution 2792 (2025), briefed the Council on Monday on efforts to account for those still missing and to return Kuwaiti property, including the country’s national archive.

The resolution covers the “repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third-country nationals or their remains, as well as the return of Kuwaiti property, including the national archive”. Yamashita said that, out of 605 people originally listed as missing, the fate of only 290 has been established over the past three decades.

She praised the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which leads the Tripartite Mechanism dealing with the issue. Current efforts are focused on Khamisiya in southern Iraq, where the remains of between 150 and 180 missing Kuwaitis are believed to be located.

Yamashita said the central difficulty is now obtaining fresh information and finding credible witnesses. “The main challenge remains identifying new information and finding credible witnesses,” she said, noting that after more than three decades such witnesses are increasingly hard to locate and opportunities to gather first-hand accounts are diminishing.

She also told the Council that some missing Kuwaiti property has been returned, but that important state documents and archives have still not been found. She called for a clear action plan to guide the search for those materials.

Yamashita welcomed a recent meeting between Kuwait’s Crown Prince and Iraq’s Prime Minister during the General Assembly session, as well as the announcement of a working group on unresolved bilateral issues.

“For the families who have lived in uncertainty for more than three decades, the need for answers remains as urgent today as ever,” she said.