ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The teachers in Sulaimani on Tuesday announced that they were temporarily suspending their two-week-long hunger strike over unpaid salaries after “understanding the situation.”
“After hearing of your warm-heartedness, understanding the situation, and holding discussions among ourselves, we decided to suspend our hunger strike for now. But we are still standing, be sure that we will take other methods and continue,” said one of the protesting teachers representing the group in a press conference.
Teachers in Sulaimani had set up a camp outside the United Nations headquarters in the city, where they had been on a hunger strike for the past two weeks.
Hours before halting the strike, Rudaw reported the deterioration of some of the striking teacher’s health conditions.
The striking teachers were demanding a resolution to the ongoing unpaid salaries crisis, as many have yet to be reimbursed for many months of work over the past decade. Despite what they describe as minimal support from Erbil and Baghdad, the protestors were adamant about securing their rights.
After renewed efforts by the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), both sides recently reached a new agreement regarding the payment of Erbil’s share in the federal budget for the year 2025.
The Kurdistan Region’s Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani told Rudaw on Sunday that he was optimistic that the KRG’s civil servants’ salary crisis would be resolved, adding that as per the new deal Baghdad should pay the salaries of KRG’s civil servants for the year 2025 uninterrupted.
Some of the protesting teachers tried to enter Erbil on Sunday but were blocked by the security forces.
