Less than a month after a surge of unrest in Iraq over poor public services, particularly power cuts, and rampant corruption, residents in southern areas of the Arab country have once again staged protests.
The Iraqis, angry with constant blackouts and the central government’s mismanagement of the situation, poured into the streets of southern Iraq on Sunday.
In Samawah, protesters have been holding a sit-in for more than a week, deploring what they call misappropriation of billions of dollars from the state budget in the last couple of years, AFP reported.
Elsewhere in Basra, an oil-rich port in the southeasternmost corner of Iraq, tribal chiefs and religious leaders have joined several hundred demonstrators in front of the provincial headquarters.
Security forces have been deployed to the southern areas to handle the unrest.
There were no reports of clashes over the weekend, but a total of fourteen people have been killed since the protests raged in July. At least one person has been shot dead by security forces.
Civil protests in Iraq have not gone down despite the Baghdad government’s pledge to pump billions of dollars into the energy-rich south.
Anti-corruption rallies have even hit in Baghdad's central Tahrir Square, but they have waned to just a few dozen protesters.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Basra last month to help restore calm, promising to take “necessary measures against infiltrators and pursue them in accordance with the law.”
The Iraqi premier also dismissed Electricity Minister Qassem al-Fahdawi al-Abadi on July 29 at the request of uneasy demonstrators.