The family of prominent Iraqi environmental activist Jaseem Al-Asadi, known for his fight to preserve fabled swamps in southern Iraq, announced yesterday that militants abducted him on Wednesday near Baghdad and he was cut off for four days. constantly speaks through local and foreign media to raise awareness of the Iraqi swamps, which are listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and have recently been threatened by water shortages and drought.
In a telephone conversation with Agence France-Presse, Nazem al-Asadi said that his activist brother was “driving his car along the highway from the city of Hilla (south) towards Baghdad” when “he was stopped by two cars and armed men in civilian “. clothes handcuffed him, put him in a car and took him away in an unknown direction. He explained that the accident occurred “about five kilometers from the capital” of Baghdad.
Al-Asadi’s brother added that “my cousin was with him and they abandoned him at the same moment on the road”, stressing that the kidnappers did not contact the family, but the police are still searching for the environmental activist. In response to a question about the motives for the kidnapping, Nazem Al-Asadi said: “We need time to understand the reasons.”
Al-Asadi, a hydraulic engineer, was born in 1957 in the Iraqi swamps. Since 2006, he has been involved in initiatives aimed at reviving this region in southern Iraq, which was almost completely drained in the 1990s under Saddam Hussein.
