This donation, it said, brings the Republic of Cyprus’ financial assistance to the CMP to a total of €4,392,700 since 2005.

“This new donation will assist CMP’s operations in 2025, including the strengthening of CMP’s excavation works and the recent establishment of an additional field team”, it adds.

Noting that it relies on donor support to implement its bi-communal project, the CMP said that the funds “will also contribute to the Committee’s goal of identifying and returning the remains of missing individuals, bringing to an end the uncertainty which has affected the families for so many years.”

It is noted that the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus was established in April 1981 under the auspices of the United Nations by an agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, following a call to establish a mechanism made in two UN General Assembly resolutions.

The CMP Project on the Exhumation, Identification and Return of Remains of Missing Persons in Cyprus became operational in 2006 and the European Union continues to be the project’s main financial contributor, it adds.

So far, it said, 1,055 missing persons from both Cypriot communities have been identified and returned to their families for dignified burials.