The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said security authorities raided a farm near the town of Ajdabiya after receiving a report of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa being held there.

“We found migrants, men, women and children, bearing signs of torture. They were taken to a hospital where they reported that other migrants had been with them and then disappeared,” one of the security sources told Reuters.

The mass grave was discovered some 10 kilometres (km) southeast of Ajdabiya, which is around 160km from Benghazi, the second largest city in the North African country.

The farm owner was arrested and had admitted the presence of a mass grave on his property, the sources said.

Unverified pictures posted on the internet showed a number of security personnel and Red Crescent volunteers placing bodies allegedly found on the farm property into black plastic bags. How the migrants died remained unclear, and investigations were underway, said one of the security sources.

Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-backed uprising in 2011.

The oil-based Libyan economy is also a draw for impoverished migrants seeking work, but security throughout the sprawling country is poor, leaving migrants vulnerable to abuses.

–Reuters–