Dozens Hospitalized as Iraq Gripped by Dust Storm

A man walks in a street during a dust storm in Iraq's city of Nasiriyah in the southern Dhi Qar province, on April 9, 2022. (AFP)
A man walks in a street during a dust storm in Iraq's city of Nasiriyah in the southern Dhi Qar province, on April 9, 2022. (AFP)
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Dozens Hospitalized as Iraq Gripped by Dust Storm

A man walks in a street during a dust storm in Iraq's city of Nasiriyah in the southern Dhi Qar province, on April 9, 2022. (AFP)
A man walks in a street during a dust storm in Iraq's city of Nasiriyah in the southern Dhi Qar province, on April 9, 2022. (AFP)

A dust storm that has swept through much of Iraq has left dozens of people in hospital with respiratory problems, a health ministry spokesman said Saturday.

The storm erupted in the north of the country on Thursday, prompting the cancellation of flights serving Erbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.

As the storm swept south, it shrouded Baghdad and cities as far south as Nasiriyah in a ghostly orange.

In the capital, buildings and vehicles were covered in ochre-colored dust, AFP journalists reported.

The storm has caused "dozens of hospitalizations across Iraq due to respiratory problems", health ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr told AFP.

The director of Iraq's meteorological office, Amer al-Jabri, said that while dust storms were not uncommon in Iraq, they are becoming more frequent "due to drought, desertification and declining rainfall".

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

Experts have said these factors threaten social and economic disaster in the war-scarred country.

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20 percent drop in water resources by 2050 due to climate change.



Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza on March 4

18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza on March 4

18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on March 4 to discuss the developments of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing Palestinians out of the strip in a counter to President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate the territory so the US can take it over.
The proposal comes after an international uproar over Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians. Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.

Palestinians have widely said they will not leave their homeland while Egypt and Jordan have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population.