Nahla farmers report supply delivery blockage

Yasmeen Altaji | Mar. 13, 2024 | Updated Mar. 14, 2024 (Cover Photo/Facebook via The Assyrian Villages of Nala)

Assyrian farmers in Iraq’s Nahla Valley said Wednesday night local authorities “prevented” deliveries of agricultural supplies to its farming villages. Supplies were reportedly allowed in after approximately five hours.

A Facebook page called The Assyrian Villages of Nala posted a series of photos and live-streamed videos Wednesday alleging blockage of a fertilizer delivery by local forces, the latest in a string of alleged abuses by authorities. The Word could not independently verify reports at this time.

The Nahla Valley, home to eight Assyrian farming villages, falls under the jurisdiction of the semiautonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Entry into the valley from other parts of the KRI requires passage through checkpoints, which Assyrians in the villages say have choked the valley of needed resources.

George Odisho, a farmer from the village of Kashkawa in the Nahla Valley, told The Word in a message farmers had obtained approval from the Asayish, or Kurdish security forces, to bring a supply of fertilizer into the villages. He said farmers were still blocked from entering. The Word could not independently verify this report.

In one video from Wednesday night, a man points to a truck loaded with supplies and says farmers were stopped on their way into Nahla.

“Once again, they’ve closed the roads,” he said in the video. “We’re not free to come and go in our villages. If we’re not free in our own villages, where will be free?”

The Assyrian Democratic Movement in a statement Thursday called for intervention by the KRI’s interior minister, citing “tension in the region due to irresponsible individual actions by those in charge of the checkpoint.”

This is a developing story.