{"id":93449,"date":"2025-04-15T03:54:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T03:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/iraq-sandstorm-leaves-1800-with-breathing-problems\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T03:54:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T03:54:31","slug":"iraq-sandstorm-leaves-1800-with-breathing-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/iraq-sandstorm-leaves-1800-with-breathing-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq sandstorm leaves 1,800 with breathing problems"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Alfie Tobutt<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC World Service<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Watch: Heavy sandstorm causes orange haze and low visibility across southern Iraq<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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More than a thousand people have been left with respiratory problems after a sandstorm swept across Iraq’s central and southern parts of the country, health officials said.<\/p>\n

One official in Muthanna province reported to the AFP news agency at least 700 cases of what they said was suffocation. <\/p>\n

Footage shared online showed areas cloaked in a thick orange haze, with local media reporting power cuts and the suspension of flights in a number of regions.<\/p>\n

Dust storms are common in Iraq, but some experts believe they are becoming more frequent due to climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Iraq’s environment ministry has warned the country will see more “dust days”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Pedestrians and police wore face masks to protect themselves from the dust and paramedics were on site to assist people with difficulty breathing, according to AFP.<\/p>\n

Hospitals in Muthanna province in southern Iraq received at least “700 cases of suffocation”, a local health official said.<\/p>\n

More than 250 people were taken to hospital in Najaf province, and at least 322 patients including children were sent to hospitals in Diwaniyah province. <\/p>\n

A further 530 people reported breathing issues in Dhi Qar and Basra provinces.<\/p>\n

The sandstorm blanketed Iraq’s southern provinces in an orange cloud that reduced visibility to less than one kilometre (0.62 mile).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Visibility was reduced to less than one kilometre<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The authorities were forced to shut down airports in the provinces of Najaf and Basra.<\/p>\n

Conditions are expected to gradually improve by Tuesday morning, according to local weather services.<\/p>\n

Iraq is listed by the UN as one of the five countries<\/a> most vulnerable to climate change as it encounters regular sandstorms, sweltering heat and water scarcity.<\/p>\n

A severe sandstorm in 2022<\/a> left one person dead and more than 5,000 needing treatment for respiratory illnesses.<\/p>\n

Iraq will be experiencing more “dust days” in the future, according to its environment ministry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Alfie Tobutt BBC World Service Watch: Heavy sandstorm causes orange haze and low visibility across southern Iraq More than a thousand people have been left<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}