IRIN Iraq

IRAQ: Northern drought-displaced farmers look to return home
BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.

IRAQ: Swine flu panic shuts down 2,000 schools
BAGHDAD Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Panic over the possible spread of H1N1 influenza has prompted the closure of more than 2,000 schools in Iraq, according to officials.

In Brief: When health facilities become casualties
DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.

IRAQ: War remnants, pollution behind rise in cancer deaths?
BAGHDAD Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - In the late 1990s 22-year-old Manal Sabir Abdullah from Basra was diagnosed with lung cancer, from which she eventually died in 2004.

In Brief: Voices of landmine survivors
DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities.

How To: Rescue people trapped in a collapsed building
NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?

In Brief: Migration myths dispelled in UNDP report
BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

In Brief: Twenty cities most vulnerable to storm surges, sea level rises
DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.

In Brief: Climate-related disasters force 20 million out of homes in 2008
JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.

IRAQ: Iraq’s marshlands in peril again
BAGHDAD Monday, September 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers and fisherman in Iraq’s southern marshlands have had mixed fortunes in the past couple of decades, but livelihood prospects are now looking increasingly bleak.

IRAQ: Driven out of farming by a salty waterway
BAGHDAD Thursday, September 03, 2009 (IRIN) - High levels of salinity in Iraq's Shat al-Arab waterway, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates in the southern province of Basra, have forced hundreds of families to abandon their once relatively fertile farms, local officials said on 2 September.

IRAQ: Drought hits rice, wheat staples
BAGHDAD Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Jabir Mohan Abdullah used to hire hundreds of workers during the rice harvest season. This year, however, with more than three-quarters of his land affected by drought, only 10 workers will be hired.

MIDDLE EAST: Swine flu keeps Muslim pilgrims at home
DUBAI Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Far fewer Muslims than normal are undertaking the lesser pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’ because of coordinated efforts by health ministers in the Gulf and beyond to counter the spread of H1N1 2009.

IRAQ: Remote control aid
BAGHDAD Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - He uses aliases, has more than one ID card, and only his parents and two sisters know what he does for a living.

Analysis: Humanitarian action under siege
DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day, as the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good.

MIDDLE EAST: Saudi Arabia has highest incidence of flu
DUBAI Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Saudi Arabia has the highest number of laboratory confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region – 595 – with four out of the eight deaths so far, according to an 8 August World Health Organization (WHO) report.

IRAQ: Iraqi refugees face urban challenges
DAMASCUS Tuesday, August 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon may be missing out on vital assistance because of problems tracing them in the cities, says the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in a report, Surviving in the City.

HOW TO: Do a food airdrop
NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew.

IRAQ: Welcome move to upgrade Baghdad slums
BAGHDAD Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Slum dwellers and local NGOs have welcomed the partnership between the government and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) to improve service delivery, reduce poverty and create employment in slums.

IRAQ: Trenches to protect Christians
BAGHDAD Thursday, July 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Security measures nationwide have been stepped up to protect the Christian community from militant attacks, security officials say, including digging trenches around Christian towns in remote areas.

IRAQ: Displaced women dig in their heels
BAGHDAD Tuesday, July 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Displaced Iraqi women are reluctant to return home, despite relatively improved security in the country and the tough conditions in camps, because of continuing uncertainties, says an NGO advocating for displaced people.

MIDDLE EAST: First swine flu death in Egypt
DUBAI Monday, July 20, 2009 (IRIN) - The Middle East registered its first death due to H1N1 2009 after a 25-year-old Egyptian woman returning from Umrah, the lesser Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, died in hospital on 18 July after testing positive for the virus, according to the Egyptian health ministry.

IRAQ: Christian community faces new wave of violence
BAGHDAD Wednesday, July 15, 2009 (IRIN) - A new wave of violence targeting Iraq's Christian community has raised questions about the safety of religious minorities amid concerns about Iraqi forces' ability to maintain security after the 30 June withdrawal of US combat forces from cities to outlying bases.

AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a South Africa-based think-tank.

IRAQ: Fewer tattoos as identity marks
BAGHDAD Sunday, July 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Despite a recent spike in violence across Iraq coinciding with the withdrawal of US soldiers from urban areas, the days when young men got tattoos done for identity purposes in anticipation of a grisly death seem to be over.