SOHR: Sandstorms hit Iraq and Syria

Trees uprooted, power outages, even deaths: the recent sandstorm raged particularly hard in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in England reported on Monday that the sandstorms killed seven people, including two children.

In Iraq, the sand shrouded the entire capital, Baghdad, in a yellowish haze, and visibility was severely restricted. Around 2,000 people had to be treated in hospitals for shortness of breath, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Ambulances are deployed across the country to help people who are at risk of suffocation, the state agency INA reported. If necessary, patients would be revived on the spot in the sandstorm, it said.

“Every three or four days”

Flights have been temporarily suspended at Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah and Najaf airports. In seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces, government agencies and institutions have been closed due to the storm. Across the country, classes were canceled in several schools, and universities postponed their exams. The government called on people to stay at home as much as possible and wear protective clothing outside.

Sandstorms are not uncommon in the region, especially in the summer months, in the desert area there are strong north-west winds that blow over the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. But the succession within a short time is currently remarkable. According to local media reports, it has been about one storm a week lately. “It’s happening every three or four days now,” Reuters quoted Ahmed Saman, who works as a taxi driver in Baghdad, as saying on Monday. “This is clearly a consequence of climate change and the lack of rain: when the wind blows, it only whirls up dust and sand.”

Climate crisis victim Iraq

Iraq in particular has been fighting drought for years, and in 2021 the country experienced one of the worst droughts in decades. During similar storms, hospitals in Iraq registered more than 5,000 patients with breathing difficulties in the past few weeks, and at least one person died as a result.

The country is particularly hard hit by the climate crisis. The World Bank estimates that Iraq could lose around 20 percent of its water reserves by 2050. In early April, a government official warned that Iraq could expect “272 days of dust” a year for decades to come. The current storms should subside by Monday evening. Meteorologists are expecting more sandstorms in the coming months.