ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A young Iraqi man committed suicide by throwing himself from the top of a bridge in the city of Hilla, a local security source said on Wednesday.
The name of the youth was not identified, but the source said he had thrown himself from Hilla’s Bab al-Hussein Bridge in Babylon province.
“The rescue team started to search for the body of the youth in the river, but could not find it,” the source told Kurdistan 24.
Suicides have considerably increased among young people in different parts of the country as security forces continue to save many from harming themselves.
In mid-April, another 20-year-old man committed suicide when he threw himself from the al-Hnud Bridge in Hilla into the Euphrates River.
Weeks ago, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) stated that in the first three months of 2019, 132 people in Iraq had committed suicide, a significant increase from previous years.
Among the Iraqi provinces, Karbala tops the list with 20 cases, followed by Basra with 19, Kirkuk with 15, and Dhi Qar with 14, according to the IHCHR.
Sixteen years after the fall of the authoritarian regime in 2003, most parts of Iraq suffer from a chronic lack of basic services like electricity and clean water, inadequate infrastructure, compounded by widespread corruption, high unemployment rates, poverty, and regular insurgent attacks by terror groups.
Corruption and mismanagement within Iraq’s government institutions remain a challenge and obstacle for civilians hoping for stability to come to the country.
Iraq has one of the world’s largest oil reserves and is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The embattled Middle Eastern nation, however, continues to rank high on Transparency International’s list for corruption, fraud, and mismanagement of state institutions.
According to the organization’s 2018 Corruption Index, Iraq ranks 168th, the 12th most corrupt country out of a total of 180.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany