FCDO's Statement on 35th Anniversary of the Anfal campaign

News : 3/16/2023

On the 25th anniversary of Anfal campaign against the innocent people of Kurdistan in which  more than 182,000 Kurds were mass graved by Saddam's regime and more than 5000 villages and towns were demolished, Lord "Tariq" Ahmad of Wimbledon Minister for Middle East, South Asia and the UN at the Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Development Department issued below statement:

Today, we mark the 35th Anniversary of the Anfal Campaign and honour the memory of those who were killed or affected during these tragic events.

Between 1986 and 1989, Saddam Hussein’s regime conducted a brutal, coordinated campaign against Kurdish and other minority groups in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This included Saddam Hussein’s abhorrent order to use chemical weapons against his own civilians, most infamously at Halabja.

The Anfal Campaign resulted in 4,000 Kurdish villages being destroyed and between 50,000-100,000 men, women and children being murdered or maimed, and forcibly displaced from their homes. We must never forget the inhumane nature of Saddam Hussein’s monstrous crimes.

My thoughts are with the families of those who were killed and the survivors who are still living with unimaginable, life-changing consequences.

The UK remains committed in its support for the peace, stability and prosperity of the people of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

 

London

16th March 2023