A week after disappearance
Teenager, presumed drowned in Great Zab River, still missing
ERBIL — It has been a week since a 16-year-old boy from the Jadida area in Erbil’s Khabat district was presumed to have drowned in the Great Zab River, with his body still missing. The local Civil Defense Department cites rising water levels due to recent rainfall as hindering recovery efforts.
The Great Zab spans 400 kilometers, flowing through Iraq via Turkey. In Iraq, it traverses a wide area in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok and Erbil governorates.
The incident took place on Sunday, April 28, 2024, when the boy, born in 2008, drowned in the river.
Amaj Mohammed, head of the Civil Defense Department in Khabat, informed 964media, “It has been a week since the boy drowned, but we still do not have information about whether he went into the Great Zab for swimming or if there was another cause.”
Search teams continue to look for the body, but recent heavy rains have caused water levels to rise in the Great Zab, complicating recovery efforts, Mohammed stated.
Images of the boy’s father, who has been waiting by the river for days, have evoked widespread sympathy.
According to statistics, in 2023, over 100 individuals in the Kurdistan Region lost their lives to drowning, despite the efforts of civil defense teams and volunteers who managed to rescue approximately 70 people.
Previously, Karwan Mirawdali, former spokesperson for Erbil Civil Defense, informed 964media that among the reported drownings, 31 occurred in Erbil governorate, specifically in the Khabat district, where 17 individuals lost their lives, including women and children. The statistics reveal a higher toll compared to 2022, when 77 individuals lost their lives to drowning in the Kurdistan Region.
Search continues for a young man body in Little Zab River
