Only eleven people survived the sinking of a sailboat a week ago off the Italian coast. Sixty people are still missing. Among the passengers, a large number were Kurds, from northern Iran or Iraqi Kurdistan. In Erbil, where the family of one of the survivors lives, the emotion is great as is the incomprehension.
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With our regional correspondent, Marie-Charlotte Roupie
“ We’re just stunned, beaten down “, explains Shwan by telephone. He lost eight members of his family in the sinking. For several days, all his relatives remaining at Kurdistan Iraqis gathered in memory of their loved ones, lost in the Mediterranean. “ We stay seated. We’re stunned, we don’t know why they left », he said again.
Without saying anything
During the last call to his cousin Rebwar, he told him that he would return to Iraqi Kurdistan for Eid al-Adha which took place earlier this week. But they boarded, without telling him anything, after waiting five months in Türkiye. There were eleven people in all. Only three of them survived. Modjeh, his cousin’s sister-in-law and two children.
One tragedy among many others
This tragedy is not the first in Kurdistan, last year, nearly 20,000 Iraqis left theIraq, using dangerous roads and at least nine people lost their lives. Shwan now says he hopes his loved ones will return but will respect Mojdeh’s decision. The authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan have affirmed that they will repatriate those who wish to return.
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