IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES. New dust storm hits Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

Airports and public administrations in Iraq had to suspend their activities on Monday May 23 due to yet another dust storm, which triggered respiratory problems in more than a thousand people before hitting Kuwait and Saudi Arabia neighbors.

In Kuwait, the international airport suspended flights for three hours.

And for the second time in less than a week, the thick cloud of dust covered the Saudi capital Riyadh and its emblematic monuments, such as the Kingdom Center tower. Saudi Civil Defense warned that the storm would persist until nightfall.

Since mid-April, Iraq, one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change according to the UN, has experienced no less than nine dust and sand storms.

Monday in Baghdad, a cloud of grayish dust floated above the almost deserted streets and freed from the usual traffic jams. South of the capital, near Najaf, shepherds and their flocks found themselves enveloped in a now familiar orange halo.

More than a thousand people across Iraq have been treated in hospitals for respiratory ailments, health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told AFP.

The storm is expected to gradually dissipate, according to weather services.

Due « bad weather conditions and the arrival of violent dust storms »Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kazimi had ordered the closure of “public institutions” with the exception in particular of health departments and security agencies.

“272 days of dust”

Due to visibility not exceeding 400 meters, Baghdad airport suspended air traffic for a few hours during the day.

Erbil International Airport, in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan (north), announced in the evening a new closure “because of thick dust” who was back, according to the state news agency INA. Thefts had also ceased there for a few hours earlier in the day.

Time and time again, airports have been forced to briefly suspend flights due to storms in recent weeks.

The last two dust storms to hit Iraq killed one person and drove nearly 10,000 people to hospitals for treatment of respiratory ailments.

These are mainly the elderly, or individuals with asthma, respiratory failure or heart disease, who are considered to be the categories most at risk, according to health authorities.

“These dust storms usually come in the summer, but not at the same rate as lately”admitted Seif al-Hamza, a doctor at a hospital in Baghdad. “Cases of suffocation have increased significantly compared to previous seasons. »

During the next two decades, Iraq should experience “272 days of dust” per year and in 2050, the threshold of 300 days will be reached, according to an official from the Ministry of the Environment.

Among the measures recommended to combat this phenomenon, the authorities rightly cite the creation of green belts around cities. “which act as windbreaks”When “desertification affects 39%” of the country’s total area, according to President Barham Saleh.