UN Presses Iraq, Kuwait to Find 315 Still Missing Since 1990
“More than thirty-five years after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, this humanitarian file remains unresolved,” Senior UN Representative Mari Yamashita told a Security Council meeting.
Yamashita said only 290 of the original 605 missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals have been accounted for over the past three decades. Of the 315 still missing, 308 are Kuwaitis. The last confirmed identification came in August 2023, she added.
Search teams have carried out extensive work, including excavations at suspected burial sites across Iraq, especially in the south, Yamashita said. Iraqi authorities have dug roughly 14,000 trenches at the Khamisiyah site and run numerous field missions to other locations of interest.
Khamisiyah remains the top priority. Investigators believe it may hold the remains of 150 to 180 missing Kuwaitis, potentially close to half of all unresolved cases. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Iraqi authorities carried out a joint field mission there in September, and Yamashita voiced hope that the findings would pave the way for further excavation as soon as possible.
Looted archives and property still unaccounted for
Yamashita also flagged the unresolved matter of Kuwaiti property seized during the invasion, including the national archives. Some materials have come back, but progress has been “limited,” she said. Items were handed over to the Kuwait National Library in 2019 and to the Ministry of Information in 2022, and more books and microfilm recordings followed in 2025.
She called for a “clear pathway” to identify and locate what is still missing, and suggested that a proposed Joint Iraq-Kuwait Committee could provide a framework for regular dialogue and cooperation.
Yamashita welcomed the recent meeting between Kuwait’s crown prince and Iraq’s prime minister on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where both countries announced a working group on outstanding bilateral issues.
“Such engagements remain important in sustaining the constructive environment needed to advance the humanitarian objectives of this mandate, to strengthen mutual confidence, and to support continued cooperation in the future,” she said.
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