The Iraqi Interior Ministry wants to build fences around the bridges of the capital city of Baghdad in order to reduce the increasing number of suicide attempts. The ministry submitted a proposal in this regard on April 15 with the support of Baghdad Provincial Council president Riyad al-Adadh, who described the project as “a viable and feasible idea.”

The proposal recognizes the increasing suicide rate in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities at a time when the news of suicide makes headlines on an almost daily basis.

A security source reported April 29 on the condition of anonymity that a river rescue force rescued a young woman who tried to throw herself from al-Jadriyah Bridge in central Baghdad. A 46-year-old woman immolated herself April 29 in Nasiriyah in the center of Dhi Qar province. A day before, a man had tried to commit suicide by throwing himself from al-Joumhuriya Bridge in central Baghdad. Also on April 28, a young man committed suicide by hanging himself in his tent in a refugee camp east of Kirkuk. A Kurdish judge in the Kurdistan Region, Subhi Abdellay, shot himself live on Facebook.

Ali al-Bayati, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Baghdad, revealed to Al-Monitor official statistics that his office obtained from government agencies and field surveys.