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In Syria, two years after his release, the city of Raqqa still counts his dead: 2,500 victims are still wanted by their relatives and teams are working tirelessly to identify the remains in the mass graves.
With our special correspondent in Raqqa, Noé Pignède
In Syria, Raqqa, the former capital of the Islamic State (IS) organization, which was occupied for almost four years, was the scene of the jihadist group's savagery: mass executions, beheadings, hostages burned alive in cages on the public place. Their remains were then buried in mass graves . Two years after Raqqa's liberation, nearly 5,000 corpses are still believed to be buried in the region.
Today, Raqqa's Civil Defense teams are working tirelessly to unearth the remains and identify them. In the middle of a misty field: twenty men exhume victims of the Islamic State organization. It is the 34th mass grave to be discovered since the liberation of Raqqa. A hundred bodies would still be buried here.
" We must cleanse the city of its dead "
For Abu Ahmed, wearing a surgical mask on the face, this work is above all a moral duty. " We must dig up these bodies to give them a dignified burial, because they were buried without following the Muslim rite," he explains. It is very difficult work, the most difficult there is. The corpses, the smell of death, psychologically, it's hard. At night, I'm afraid, I have a lot of nightmares. We work with death. It kills us slowly . ”
" We take samples: the radius, hair and his clothes ... ", describes the medical examiner Mahmoud Hassan. The 61-year-old doctor is expected to be retired. He is one of only two Raqqa forensic pathologists. " No doctor wants to do this job," he says. Someone has to do it! Our mission is essential for life to resume in Raqqa. We must cleanse the city from its dead . ”
► Also read: Syria: around 200 bodies discovered in a mass grave in Raqqa