Kurdistan
Karzan Amir, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s police, speaking in Erbil on January 5, 2021. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region’s police force recorded more than 700 deaths resulting from murder, manslaughter, honor killings, family feuds, suicides, and accidents in 2021, an official speaking on behalf of the interior ministry said on Wednesday.
Over 270 people were recorded as killed in 2021, with 215 deliberate murders and 59 crimes of manslaughter, according to Karzan Amir, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s police, adding that an additional 130 people in the Region were reported as dying from fatal accidents.
In total, there were around 700 deaths arising from unnatural causes in 2021, with these figures deriving from various reasons, including honor killings, family feuds, and suicides, he said in a press conference on Wednesday.
In August, police in Duhok arrested a man after he confessed to the killing of his 22-year-old ex-wife in the district. Three were killed in October when two families clashed in Erbil. Towards the end of the year, an argument over a parking spot led to the murder of two people in the Kurdistan Region's capital.
Of the fatal tally, 287 of these reported deaths were suicides. In January 2021, a 20-year old Yazidi woman suffered suicide and was found dead in her tent at a camp for the internally displaced in Esyan Camp in Duhok’s Shekhan district.
Gun ownership is a major contributing factor of murders in the Region, with the government facing problems trying to control the problem. Over 1,000 guns without licenses were seized in 2021. Many different types of weapons can be acquired on the black market, with an estimated 70 percent of people in the Kurdistan region owning weapons.
Despite the large percentage of gun ownership, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that it was considering a new law to impose tighter regulations for obtaining a gun license in November, as it seeks to render old gun licenses null and void.
A further 600 people were killed in traffic accidents across the Region last year, Asaad Mullah Karim, the Kurdistan Region’s traffic directorate spokesperson told Rudaw on Monday.
By Julian Bechocha
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