Kurdistan
Sarkawt Mohammed, looking at his own death certificate, in Chamchamal district’s Shorsh subdistrict, Sulaimani province, on December 28, 2025. Photo: screengrab/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A man from Sulaimani’s Chamchamal district has returned to his family after eight years of disappearance, bearing visible injuries and with little memory of where he had been.
Sarkawt Mohammed, 42, went missing in August 2017 after traveling to Baghdad with his brother to seek treatment for mental illness. He returned home last Monday in poor health, exhausted, and with signs of wounds on his body.
“I was in prison, they opened my head… they hit my head with metal,” Mohammed told Rudaw. Asked why he was detained, he said it was “for no reason,” adding that he does not know where he had been held.
His brother, Azad Mohammed, said Sarkawt “disappeared” when they were in Baghdad at a teahouse. Sarkawt’s name could not be found at any government institutions despite years of searching.
With no information about his fate and after years of despair, the family eventually had to obtain a death certificate in order to manage legal matters related to the household and Mohammed’s four children.
His wife and one of their children have special needs, and the family says it cannot afford medical treatment for his condition.
Relatives say his health remains fragile, and traces of injury and alleged torture are still visible on his body as the family tries to understand what happened during his years of disappearance.
Peshawa Bakhtiyar contributed to this article from Chamchamal, Sulaimani.
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