Study: 132 suicide cases in Iraq in first quarter of 2019

Some 132 people Iraqis have committed suicide during the first three months of 2019, the High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) announced yesterday.

In an official study, IHCHR said that Iraq’s central city of Karbala had registered the highest suicide rates, with around 20 people committing suicide.

“Twenty suicides were committed in the Iraqi province of Karbala, 19 in Basra, 15 in Kirkuk, and 14 in Dhi Qar,” the rights organisation pointed out.

Sixteen years after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq which led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, most of the country suffers from a chronic lack of basic services including electricity and clean water, inadequate infrastructure, compounded by widespread corruption, high unemployment rates, poverty and regular insurgent attacks by terrorist groups. Corruption and mismanagement within Iraq’s government institutions remain a challenge and obstacle for civilians who are longing for stability.

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