The International Day of the Disappeared is observed on the 30th of August every year and was created to draw attention to the fate of the individuals who went missing through conflict, disaster and migration and show solidarity with their loved ones. Thousands of Lebanese families still do not know what became of their relatives and are not being provided with any information on the fate of their loved ones.

A mother whose three sons went missing in the Lebanese war holds up photographs of her children.

This year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched an online campaign under the hashtag #TheDayIDisappeared or #يوم_ختفيت to shed the light on this cause and show support to the families of missing in Lebanon during an event taking place later on today. They also released this powerful video that I shared below to remind us that war did not end yet for many families.

Providing families with answers and supporting them is the responsibility of the authorities but they couldn’t care less about these families. Last year, the ICRC submitted a request to collect biological reference data from the relatives of missing persons to facilitate identification later on by cross-checking DNA samples but the request still awaits approval by the Council of Ministers.

The families of the disappeared continue to wait for answers to ease their indescribable pain. You can listen to some of their testimonies below:

[YouTube]