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The seat of the governorate of Basra bears the traces of the fires caused by the throwing of Molotov cocktails. REUTERS / Essam al-Sudani

On Wednesday, 5 September, Jan Kubis, the UN representative in Iraq called for calm in Basra, a city in the south of the country that was the scene, the day before, new events that killed six people. What made it the most deadly day since the beginning, in July 2018, of a movement of social and sanitary protest.

" Six protesters were killed and more than 20 wounded " on Tuesday evening, September 4, in front of the building of the governorate of Basra province, said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the provincial government council for human rights. A report confirmed by medical sources at Agence France Presse. The city has had its bloodiest day since the beginning of the unrest two months ago, in July 2018. A movement that has spread to other parts of Iraq. Jan Kubis, the UN representative in Iraq called " calm, " urging " the authorities to avoid resorting to a disproportionate lethal force against protesters ".

Dead city

Basra, from where the movement has started demanding public services and more efficient infrastructures, was, this Wednesday, September 5th in the morning, almost deserted. Many stores had not opened, while burnt tires lay on the arteries of the city, according to an AFP correspondent. The seat of the governorate, main rallying point of the protesters who conspire the state and its leaders prevaricators, still carried traces of the fires caused by the throwing of Molotov cocktails and fireworks sticks thrown by protesters until late in the morning. night.

The Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, the winner of the legislative elections who is now trying to form a government with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, denounced in a tweet "vandals infiltrated" among the demonstrators, repeating the thesis defended by the authorities since the beginning of the protest. Elsewhere in the province, where water pollution has led more than 20,000 people to the hospital, protesters cut roads by burning tires in the night, according to the AFP correspondent.

Question of polluted water

Abadi said he met members of the Basra province in Baghdad. He again reassured that measures would be taken, without specifying which ones, to settle the polluted water issue. In July, the government had already announced a multi-billion dollar emergency plan for the south of the country, spared by the war against the Islamic State (IS) group but neglected in terms of infrastructure.

( with AFP )