Five more individuals are currently undergoing identification at the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) laboratory, with officials confirming on Tuesday that 26 excavation missions have already been completed since the start of the year.

According to the Greek Cypriot component of the CMP, the remains of two individuals recovered in late 2025 in Lefkoniko, two others from Lapithos and one individual found in Karavas on the final day of last year have now been transferred to the anthropological laboratory for DNA identification.

The CMP’s eight excavation teams are expected to resume operations in June following Kataklysmos.

One of the teams will begin work in a military area after approval procedures with the Turkish military are completed.

Excavations this year have led to bone findings corresponding to two individuals in Lapithos, where work will continue next month.

Additional excavation activity is ongoing in Exometochi and Galateia, while new searches are scheduled to begin at the village of Choulou in the Paphos.

Further excavations are due to start on June 3 in Assia and Kythrea, followed by operations on June 5 inside the buffer zone in Yerolakko.

The CMP has also proposed 10 excavation sites located within military zones in the north.

So far, work has taken place at three such locations, including a military area in Turkish-controlled part of Dherynia, Petra in the Famagusta district and in the village of Sychari near Bellapais.

Barring unforeseen developments, another excavation inside a military area is expected to begin after June 2 in Kyra, near Morphou, where the CMP’s eighth team will be deployed.

Officials also confirmed that previous CMP excavations had been carried out near the Tekke gardens behind Kyrenia avenue in the northern quarter of Nicosia, though not at the specific site where Turkish Cypriots are currently conducting separate excavation work.

Turkish Cypriot CMP member Haki Muftuzade earlier this week said the committee was continuing excavation efforts at eight active locations and stressed the importance of public cooperation in providing information relating to missing persons cases.

“A total of 205 remains have been discovered in excavations in military areas,” he said, adding that 127 excavations had so far been conducted in restricted military zones.

Muftuzade also said the CMP’s annual budget stands at €3.9 million, funded primarily by the European Union and international donors, and stated that there were “no funding shortages” affecting DNA analysis or laboratory work.

The CMP, established in 1981, began systematic excavation operations in 2006 to investigate cases linked to intercommunal violence in the 1960s and the events of 1974.

More than 1,000 missing persons from both communities have been identified to date, while several hundred cases remain unresolved.