Protesters injured in Nasiriyah to be treated abroad: governor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Dhi Qar Governor Ahmed al-Khafaji has said the Ministry of Oil has allocated money to send protesters wounded in clashes in the city of Nasiriyah for treatment overseas, state media reported on Wednesday.

A statement from Khafaji's media office said that the governor discussed the subject with Iraq’s Minister of Oil Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar, along with other issues such as creating job opportunities for graduates holding sit-ins in front of oil companies in the Dhi Qar provincial capital.

"It was approved to allocate a sum of money to send people injured in the protests for treatment outside Iraq," the statement said.

A fuel crisis struck the southern city of Nasiriyah earlier in March, with protesters shutting down the city’s oil refinery the Dhi Qar oil distribution department for several days.

Hundreds of unemployed petroleum engineering, geology, management, and economics graduates staged a sit-in outside the refinery to demand jobs and prevented employees from entering the site.

Economic woes and unemployment contributed to the outbreak of the October 2019 protest movement, in which hundreds of protesters have been killed in a bloody crackdown at the hands of security forces and Iran-backed militias.

Nasiriyah has witnessed bloody protests and clashes between demonstrators and security forces since 2019.