IRBIL: With artificial limbs in the place of legs they lost to extremists, a group of Iraqis plunged into a swimming pool for a special race aimed at helping them overcome the horrors of war.
Abdel Zahra Kazem, a soldier from southern Iraq who was wounded in an attack in Baghdad, said getting back in the pool had helped him to rediscover one of his passions in life.
“I’ve swum since I was a child and today I can start again,” he said by the poolside at a hotel in Irbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
Rabie Abdellatif lost a leg in an attack by the Daesh extremist group in Iraq’s second city Mosul, which was left in ruins by the government’s battle against the militants.
Thanks to his artificial limb, he said he has recovered “80 percent of my capabilities from life before.”
“I can drive my car. I can work,” he told AFP, his swimsuit and cap still dripping wet.
By the side of the pool, half a dozen men with artificial legs waited in the shade for their turn splashing in the water.
They were watched by officials from Kurdistan and Kuwait, which has provided funding for the rehabilitation of civilians and fighters from Iraqi Kurdish and federal forces.
The aim, said Irbil governor Nawzad Hadi, is to “give life and hope” to victims of Daesh.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi security personnel were wounded in the three-year battle against Daesh, which at its peak controlled nearly a third of the country as well as swathes of neighboring Syria.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have also been wounded in attacks perpetrated for years by extremist groups across Iraq, which declared victory over Daesh in December.
Iraqi amputees take the plunge to forget horrors of Daesh
Iraqi amputees take the plunge to forget horrors of Daesh
- Iraqis plunge into swimming pool for a special race aimed at helping them overcome war horrors
- Tens of thousands of Iraqi security personnel were wounded in the three-year battle against Daesh
UN rights chief shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
