“Late last night, a man in the Taza subdistrict of Kirkuk province threw his three-month-old child into a pond, causing the child to drown,” Amer Nuri, the spokesperson for Kirkuk police, told Rudaw on Monday while announcing the man’s arrest.
The spokesperson said the father “suffers from psychological problems and his mental state is not well.”
The police said that while they were investigating the incident, the man had said that a dispute with his wife led him to commit the crime.
In August, a father was accused of stabbing his two-year-old son in Tuz Khurmatu, 60 kilometers south of Kirkuk in Salahadin province, following an argument between the parents, local security sources reported.
According to the United Nations children’s organization UNICEF, there are “hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq” in need of protection from abuse and violence.
Last month as part of its efforts to build its child protection services, the Iraqi government opened 44 childcare units.
"These units will serve as strategic hubs for coordinating and enhancing child protection services, promoting safe environments, and supporting the holistic development of children and families,” said Minister of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) Ahmed al-Asadi.
This MOLSA initiative aligns with the country’s commitment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to UNICEF.
