On the 19th February 1929, the Italian columns advanced and the main battle for Kufra was short lived, with the combined Italian columns decimating the 600 or so Senussi tribesmen at their garrison at Al-Hawari, Benghazi. It is said that on the following day, the Italian flag, the Il Tricolore. was raised by the Italians and flew over al-Taj, the shrine of Sayyid al-Madhi al-Sanussi⁴. The shrine was built in 1895, after the Ottomans forced Sayyid al-Madhi, and the Senussi order to leave Jaghbub and retreat to Kufra. Sayyid al-Madhi, was the son of the founder and supreme leader of the Senussi order ‘al-Sayyid Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanussi'⁵.

Once the patriot resistance was overcome, the Italian forces began a purge of the outlying villages and any tribesmen who had managed to escape the battle were strafed, by low flying Italian aircraft. The villagers, powerless to defend themselves against the Italian forces, found themselves besieged. Many fled to safer territories, including French held Chad, and Egypt, which was at that time a British held colony.

Some reached safety including ‘Abd el Gali Seif en Naser, a resistance fighter, who had fought against the colonising troops at Kufra, and also in 1915 at Oasr bu Hadi, where the resistance had defeated the Italian forces. However, many others died whilst seeking sanctuary. The relentless pursuit by Italian aircraft and the strafing and constant bombardment, along with no food or water, meant that many men, women and children died on their journey, with their mummified remains still being found many years later⁶. Survivors of the battle and siege, who had sought refuge in outlying palm fields, later reported the screams of the village women, being raped by the Italian forces and their Eritrean Askaris, along with the sound of Italian gunfire and laughter, throughout the night⁷. It has also been reported, that on the following day, General Graziani assembled all survivors and took them to the tomb of ‘Sayid Muhammed al-Madhi', where he tore apart a copy of the Koran, hurled it to the floor and stamped his boot on it, shouting to the crowd ‘Let your Bedouin prophet help you now, if he can!’⁸.

Graziani then ordered the felling of all palm trees on the oasis, the destruction of all the village wells and the burning of all books in Sayid Ahmad's Library. It has also been stated that on the following day, Graziani ordered that some of the village elders and scholars be taken by aeroplane to a great height and thrown to their death⁹.

The appropriation of Kufra, signified the end of the Sanussi’s power in Libya. Kufra became a stronghold for the Italian troops and a large compound and operations base was built to increase Italian control, in southern Libya¹⁰. All remaining villagers and tribesmen were incarcerated in concentration camps, where the treatment of the prisoners was inhumane, with starvation, disease and executions amongst the main causes of death.