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The Kurdish community in Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region says that the numbers of suicides are increasing, particularly in refugee camps full of Kurdish Yazidis.

In the last two weeks, there have been 11 suicides in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, the Kurdish community (KDG) in Gieen, Germany, told the Catholic news agency KNA on Monday.

The most affected group are young Yazidis, mostly residing in refugee camps in Kurdish region of northern Iraq, says KDG. The community thinks that the suicides are linked to the difficult conditions in which many refugees in the camp are living; the lack of perspective for the future, and economic and social problems.

On top of all that, the coronavirus pandemic has hit these communities particularly hard, reported KNA.

The KDG has called on the international community to provide more support for these vulnerable groups.

At the moment a psychologist who is famous for working with the Yazidi community in Germany, Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, is researching the potential causes for the increase in suicides. Kizilhan heads up the Institute for Transcultural Health Research Institute at Baden-Wrttemberg Cooperative State University Villingen-Schwenningen (Dualen Hochschule Baden-Wrttemberg.)

The Yazidi community was persecuted in 2014 by the terror group Islamic State (IS) who call Yazidis unbelievers, because of their alternative way of practicing their form of the Muslim faith. According to the UN, at least 5,000 Yazidis were killed in the massacre on Mount Sinjar, with many women and girls raped and or subjected to sexual and economic slavery.

The KDG has criticized the government of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq for not having done enough to meet the Yazidi refugee needs in their area. According to KNA, more than 100,000 Yazidis currently reside in northern Iraq. Germany took in around 1,000 Yazidis under a special relocation program in 2014.

With KNA

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Kurdish community in Iraq says suicides on the rise - InfoMigrants

United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres today announced the appointment of Ingibjrg Slrn Gsladttir of Iceland as his new Deputy Special Representative for Political Affairs and Electoral Assistance of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Ms. Gsladttir succeeds Alice Walpole of the United Kingdom, who will complete her assignment end February 2021. The Secretary-General is grateful to Ms. Walpole for her dedicated service since 2017 to the United Nations in Iraq.

Ms. Gsladttir brings a wealth of diplomatic and political experience to the position, including from her recent role as Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and most recently as the Head of its Election Observation Mission in Ukraine. She also served as UN Womens Regional Director in Europe and Central Asia and its Country Representative in Turkey and Afghanistan. She was Icelands Foreign Affairs Minister from 2007 to 2009, member of Parliament for seven years, and Mayor of Reykjavk for nine years. She is a member of the Nordic Womens Mediators Network.

Ms. Gsladttir holds a bachelors degree in history and literature from the University of Iceland and did post-graduate studies in history at the University of Copenhagen.

New York, 15 January 2021

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Secretary-General appoints Ms. Ingibjrg Slrn Gsladttir of Iceland as Deputy Special Representative for Iraq - Iraq - ReliefWeb

Jan 15, 2021

Three years after Iraq officially declared victory over the Islamic State (IS),a new batch of over 3,000 of those displaced by the terror group have returned to their homes from Salamiyah camp in Ninevah governorate.The development is part ofIraq's Ministry of Migration and Displacement plan to close this camp and others, the ministryannounced Jan. 9. The ministry is planning to close all the displacementcamps across Iraq this year.

This is the first government to create a comprehensive plan to bringthe displaced persons back to their areas of origin, saidMinister of Migration and Displacement Ivan Faiek Jabru, one of three female ministers in Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimis government.

We accepted the responsibility to seriously implement this strategy, she told Al-Monitor, pointing out that previous ministries had focusedonly on distributing food rations and providing health services. There were neither voluntary return effortsnor campclosures, and not even support to refugees abroad, she added.

Over the past six months, more than 66,600 internally displaced persons(IDPs) have returned to their homes.

Out of 76 displacementcamps before the formation of this government, only 29 camps are still open, saidJabru.Still, we increased the food rations to ensure food security and to cope with the impact of the coronaviruspandemic.

Ninevahs Salamiya camp and Anbars Amiriyat Fallujah camp will be shut down within days.

We still need time to solve security and tribal problems for Jadaah camp, to the south of Mosul, Jabru noted. As for the Kurdistan Regions camps, we are about to conduct a special visit to coordinate an effort to close 10 campsin the first phase [of closures]." The minister emphasized that no one will beforced to go back home.

However,there was a great deal of criticism from IDPs and relief workersthat thedisplaced are beingforced to return home orto move to other camps.Theyalso criticize the government fornot ensuring necessary safeguards for their return.

The governmentdenies the accusations.

It is 100% voluntary return, confirmed Jabru.We worked hard to remove the obstacles bycreatingasuitable environment,reconstructing their houses, providing job opportunities, holding national reconciliation workshopsand establishingincome-generating projects.

After he fled his hometown of al-Qaimon the borderwith Syriato Turkey in 2014, Omar al-Tai's relatives and neighbors sought refuge in displacementcamps inside Iraq.

Most of my relatives in al-Qaim and Rummana voluntarily came back to their homes,the 27-year-old teacher told Al-Monitor. Still, some are struggling financially. Their areas are safe now and the camps should be closed. But some want to stay there due to the lack of services, jobsorplaces to live.

Ahmed al-Ghurairi, a representative of the International Rescue Committees protection program who works in western Anbar,criticized the move.Some were forced to leave the camps recently, hetold Al-Monitor.Especially the families from al-Qaim. Most of them have neither homes nor jobs; the infrastructure is destroyed and the economy is in a deplorable state.

Mustafa,a displaced man who lives and works inHabbaniyah displacement camp and gave a pseudonym for security reasons, told Al-Monitor,About 100 families cannot go back home and might be forced to leave or move to Amiriyat Fallujah camp. Although the Habbaniyah camp was officially declared closed in November 2020, over 200 families still remain since they have nowhere else to go.

However, Jabru deniedthe useof force in returning the displaced to their homes. She told Al-Monitor that if families do not want to return home for any reason,we do not force them at all. She said that if a given camp only has a few families remaining, it may ask them to move to another camp to maintain the quality of service provided to them."

The governmenthopes to ensure the return of all IDPs, some of whom have lived for six years in camps withpoor educational and health services, andfaced abuse.

We implemented sustainable solutions to bring the people back and guarantee their welfare while we continue providing relief for them, Jabru said. We have distributed 300 flats in Maysan governorate, in the southeast of Iraq, for displaced families;restored 1,600 houses in Anbar and Ninevah;built 490 caravans to house displaced families;and built 41 other caravans as makeshift schools in Ninevah and Diyala in the past six months."

The ministry hasresumed issuingapprovalstoallowpeople to return to their hometowns intense areaslike Sinjar and Jurf al-Sakhar,after working to prevent the releaseof former IS members.

"The approvals to return home needed to cross various checkpoints took around 20 days to obtain,Qahtan Shaqqo, a young Yazidi man who returned to Sinjar six months ago from a camp in Dahuk, told Al-Monitor.

As of 2019, more than250,000 Iraqiswere awaiting asylumin neighboring countries.Due to the scope of this problem,Jabruhas focusedthe ministrys effortson helping refugees whoseasylum applications wererejected toreturn home.

Over the past three months, 800 citizens have returned fromTurkeyand Europe, she said.We havegranted379 land plots to some of these refugees along with a repatriation allocation of 4million Iraqi dinars [$2,740]eachto encourage them to come back.

Another13,000 internally displaced familieswere granted funding of1.5 million Iraqi dinars ($1,025) each, Jabru noted.Shaqqoand Taiare hoping to obtain these grants, saying some of their acquaintances alreadyhave.

Most of the people in Ramadi got those grants, said Tai.However,those inthe regions to the west of Anbar havent got them yet, including my father.We havent been compensated for the damage doneby aerial bombardments on our house and brand-new car. We have lost almost everything.

While many IDPslike Fahad Sultan, a Muslim Kurd who returned to his village on the outskirts of Sinjar after six years in Dahuk,hopedto resume normal life, they encountered unemployment, destroyed cities and infrastructure, tribal conflicts and unexploded ordnance.

Ghurairisaid that IS militants have recentlydestroyed transmission towersin al-Qaim.Some familieslivebelow the poverty line, andfamilies who depend on femalebreadwinnersare prone to exploitation, he explained.

The Migration and Displacement Ministry acknowledgesthese challengesandexpresses determinationto continue the effortsto resolve these obstacles.

We are organizing visits to the Kurdistan Region to facilitate the rapid return of families, Jabru concluded.The same goes for Jurf al-Sakhar, due to the areas unstable security situation and thepresence ofunexploded ordnance. It is difficult for families to return at the present time.

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Iraq makes major progress in closing camps for the displaced - Al-Monitor

Iraq announced two deals with countries that Iran hopes can be gradually moved further into its sphere of influence. One of the two, Lebanon, is already seen by Tehran as a key player in the Shia crescent of power that it has been meticulously developing for years - as a counterpoint to the U.S.s own sphere of influence centred on Saudi Arabia - that stretches from Syria and Lebanon through Iraq and Iran and then south into Yemen.

According to comments last week from Iraqs new Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, following a meeting in Baghdad with his Lebanon counterpart, Raymond Ghajar, Iraq will begin exporting fuel to Lebanon this month. The geopolitical imperative underpinning this announcement cannot be overstated, given that Iraq itself suffered from extreme power shortages over the summer and remains subject to intermittent power failures in various regions. So poor is Iraqs own ability to generate sufficient power for its needs based on any sort of fuel that it is locked in to a rolling electricity and gas import deal with Iran that has been the source of extreme friction between it and the U.S. for years. Without any apparent hint of irony, Iraqs Jabbar stated at the time of announcing the new arrangement with Lebanon last week: The exported fuel [is] expected to cover the requirements of the Lebanese power stations to generate electricity.

In a similar vein, the director of Iraqs State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), Alaa al-Yasiri, said last week that Jordan is currently in negotiations to extend its previous contract to buy crude oil from Iraq, following the end of the previous contract at the end of December. The resumption of crude oil imports by Jordan from Iraq in the middle of last year was widely regarded as a step towards consolidating the Shia crescent of power falling across the region by dint of Iran, although it also served to boost Baghdads beleaguered finances and Jordans energy plans as well. Jordans Energy Minister, Hala Zawati, stated in July of last year that the Kingdom would resume imports of at least 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iraq crude oil via tankers at a discount of US$16 to the Brent price, reflecting transport costs and quality differential. These supplies which had been suspended earlier this year due to the price crash following the oil price war came from Baiji in Iraq direct to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC), constituting around seven per cent of Jordans daily demand. The original deal that had been struck in 2006 mandated a discount to Brent of US$18 pb, on the basis that Jordan bore the transport costs between Kirkuk in northern Iraq and Zarqa in the Kingdom and presaged a broader build-out of energy ties between the two countries. Related: Biden's Boom: The $30 Trillion ESG Sector Is Set To Explode In 2021

A key part of this build-out is expected to be the resumption of detailed discussions to build a pipeline between the two countries, with the original idea being for a Basra-Aqaba route spanning around 1,700 km, including traversing the ever-volatile Anbar province. The agreement to proceed had been made in 2013 but was then delayed both by the paucity of domestic or international investment required for the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract and by the activities of Islamic State from 2014. A revised route via Najaf was then proposed in 2016 but again failed due to lack of international investment, as did subsequent reiterations of the idea until December last year saw an announcement from Iraqs Oil Ministry that it had completed the prequalifying process for companies interested in participating in the pipeline project. At that point, from the Iraq side, the first phase of the project included the installation of a 700-kilometre-long pipeline with a capacity of 2.25 million barrels within the Iraqi territories. The second phase included installing a 900-kilometre pipeline in Jordan between Haditha and Aqaba with a capacity of one million barrels. The then-Iraq Oil Minister, Thamir Ghadhban, set May 2020 as the final date to receive offers for the project from the qualified companies but this was then delayed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jordan is also absolutely vital to Irans plans to construct a pan-Arabian electricity power grid, initially focused on the Iraq-Jordan hub but then expanding, with Iran at its centre. According to comments at the end of 2020 from the director general of Jordans National Electric Power Company (NEPCO), Amjad Rawashdeh, preparations are underway for the tender for the construction the Jordan-Iraq electricity power grid, anticipated to be floated at the beginning of this year. In the first stage, the focus of the grid will be on expanding the capacity of Jordans Al Risha plant that will allow for the provision of 150 megawatts of electricity to Iraq for an initial period of three years, although it is renewable with the agreement of both countries. In parallel with this, work will begin on the second phase projects that include building out the electrical exchange capabilities between the two and the establishment of a joint Arab electricity market. In the meantime, Iraqs Electricity Minister, Majid Mahdi Hantoush, announced that not only is Iraq currently working on connecting its grid with Jordans electricity networks through a 300-kilometre-line a project that will be finished within two years - but also plans have been finalised for the completion of Iraqs electricity connection with Egypt within the next three years. Related: Saudi Arabia Starts New Bull Run In Middle East Oil

According to sources in the Presidential Administration of former U.S. President, Donald Trump, exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com at the time, the announcement of the new Jordan-Iraq electricity initiative was greeted with a split jury. The Iran-Iraq doves regarded the new initiative between Iraq and Jordan as a genuine attempt by Iraq to wean itself off Iranian electricity and gas supplies. After all, over time, the initiative would mean Jordan supplying Iraq with 1,000 gigawatt (GW) hours per year in the first phase of the project (after the completion of the electricity linkage project), and a gradual increase in capacity after that. The Iran-Iraq hawks in Washington, though, believed that this Iraq-sponsored push to build a regional energy grid across the Middle East beginning with the Jordan project - was not an effort to reduce Baghdads dependence on Iran but in reality was aimed at expanding Tehrans regional influence further. In this hawkish context, just a month or so before the relatively new Iraq Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, visited Washington last year, Irans Energy Minister, Reza Ardakanian, stated that Iran and Iraqs power grids had become fully synchronised to provide electricity to both countries. This, he said, was due to the new Amarah-Karkheh 400-KV transmission line stretching over 73 kilometres, which also paves the way for increasing energy exports to Iraq in the near future, from the current 1,361 megawatts per day now. He added that Iranian and Iraqi dispatching centres were now fully connected in Baghdad, the power grids were seamlessly interlinked, and that Iran had signed a three-year co-operation agreement with Iraq to help the countrys power industry in different aspects.

At the same time, it was announced by the Iranian Electrical Power Equipment Manufacturing and Provision Company that Irans electricity exports to other neighbouring countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on 19 March 2020) reached over 8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), a mean average increase of 27.6 per cent year-on-year. So far, the countries receiving power from Irans grid are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, plus, of course, Iraq (which saw an increase of 34.6 per cent from the preceding year). This network does not include the parallel network connections that Iran is consolidating in terms both of direct electricity and gas exchanges, which further includes Turkmenistan and Turkey. Finally, the Iraq-Jordan pipeline would also allow Iran an alternate export line to the historically vulnerable Strait of Hormuz route, to add to the current plans for the Guriyeh-Jask pipeline and plans to roll out a pipeline to Syria as well. It will also provide another cover route for Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, which can then be shipped easily both West and East.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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Iran Expands Its Sphere Of Influence With Iraqi Energy Deals - OilPrice.com

Even in a city as robust as Los Angeles, where Lebanese, Syrian, Israeli, Iranian, and Armenian restaurants count in the hundreds, its still easy to get surprised by a simple falafel sometimes. Manaf Alsudaney is the owner of Falafel Chee, a walk-up stand inside of West LA International Market at 10817 Venice Boulevard near Culver City, and on weekends he sells just one thing: warm, airy, crispy Iraqi falafel, either by the piece or wrapped in thin, open Lebanese pita bread. At $3.50 per sandwich, its not only one of the best dishes you can eat in greater LA right now, its one of the best deals, too.

But as with most food stories, the meal itself is just the jumping-off point.

For starters, Alsudaney only works on Saturday and Sunday because he has a whole other gig during the week: Hes a doctor. The clinical research coordinator has worked at Cedars-Sinai for more than two years, but he keeps a deep history with the falafel he loves. In multiple discussions with Alsudaney, he alternatively describes himself as an artist, a chef, a storyteller, and an MD, with a background that starts in Iraq and runs through Detroit, Michigan. Hes a talker, with a hell of a story to share, and that fits the stand just fine, because after you eat your first sandwich, youll probably go right back in for another chat and another round of falafel.

Born in Iraq, Alsudaney earned his degree at the Baghdad School of Medicine. While there, he used his command of the English language to work as a U.S. Army translator, helping with medical needs at hospitals and in the field. The plan was always to parlay that into a United States green card, Alsudaney says, which is how he ended up in Dearborn, Michigan, with its large Iraqi expat population, in 2009.

Within a year, Alsudaney was building a bakery in Detroit with $50,000 he had borrowed from his brother. I used to eat with the Army officers, Alsudaney says over the phone, and they liked shawarma and these other things, but I would take them for falafel. Emboldened by the enthusiasm he found with American servicemen for the pared-down regional falafel style, and pushed by his own passions to simply create, Alsudaney worked to open a place of his own that focused on those hometown techniques and flourishes, including Iraqi samoon breads baked in a brick oven. A disaster with the oven build ensued, and just like that his get-started-in-America money, his brothers life savings, was gone. It was a very sad day for me, he says.

Eventually, Alsudaney was able to turn his business around, making Naba Brick Oven Bakery a formidable name in the competitive market around Detroit, before departing to Southern California in 2017. I used to go to Arabic markets in Orange County, says Alsudaney, They have this kind of restaurant within the international markets. It came to my mind: why not open a space in one of them? As in Michigan, the young Iraqi immigrant felt compelled not just to stick with medicine, at his parents request, but to create a company, with his own hands, to be proud of.

Its easier to understand Alsudaneys motivations once youve tried Falafel Chee. Unlike, say, Palestinian or Israeli falafel, which (broadly speaking) often contains greens and different spices, his is a strictly garbanzo bean mix, crushed and smoothed by hand only. Youre subtracting, says Alsudaney. Sometimes people think the more you add the better taste will come. Im making the original, crispy and pure in taste and smell. When you eat something crispy and fluffy and easy to chew, thats when the fun comes in.

After an attempted launch in Orange County, Alsudaney moved to Culver City and landed at the West LA International Market, but not before building a business plan and tracking down the owner first. I told him Your market brings at least 1,100 people per day, he says of his time convincing the markets owner. They are all free advertising. Once people enter your market and smell, they will see the product and love it. His first week in business came right after Thanksgiving.

The stand itself is tiny, barely more than one person wide and tucked next to the produce bins, but its enough for him and a tray of falafel that he fries on site. There, Alsudaney picks every ball, layers every ingredient from the lettuce and tomato to pickled turnips, and rolls every sandwich. There are a few tweaks to be made, he admits first with the sauces. Customers here are used to tahini, though he prefers the spicy mango amba and date sauce dibis, both of which you can find at Falafel Chee if you ask. Alsudaney swears, one he gets his own place, that hes also going to perfect his samoon bread using another hand-built oven, but for now hes fine with the Lebanese stuff. Mostly, he just wants to believe that its all still possible, that a former translator turned doctor from Baghdad can really make it on the West Coast of America, selling the kind of falafel hes always loved.

This falafel I want to modernize, says Alsudaney. But if you have the brain, and you want to do also the physical thing, and the financial thing, youre not going to make it. You need people who can support you.

The problem with me is, Im the only one.

Falafel Chee is open Saturday and Sunday only inside the West LA International Market at 10817 Venice Blvd., keeping hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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LAs New Falafel Stand Is a One-Man Masterpiece That Hails From Iraq - Eater LA