SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Despite efforts by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to curb the illegal sale of weapons, they are still available on the black market.
A 24-year-old man and resident of Halabja named Zhyar Hussein passed away after accidentally shooting himself with a pistol. According to his family, the firearm had been purchased by his friend for only 30,000 Iraqi dinars ($20).
“I do not understand how a weapon can be worth 30,000 Iraqi dinars. The weapon of Zhyar’s friend was worth 30,000 Iraqi dinars, and the accident happened,” Nishtiman Hamaamin, his mother, told Rudaw on Saturday.
Six months after the closure of the Erbil arms market, the price of bullets has increased from 1,500 dinars to 2,500 dinars on the black market.
“Now weapons and ammunition are being smuggled, which is bad because someone’s enemy could buy them. Why? Because no one is monitoring the market which is bad,” Ali Khaylani, Member of the Erbil Arms Dealers Council, said.
A market in Garmiyan had around 35 arms dealing shops that were closed down following the measures taken by the KRG in June.
Arms markets in Duhok province, Raparin, Soran, and Zakho administrations have been closed. In 2022, there were 212 shootings in the Kurdistan Region and 1,373 unlicensed weapons were seized.
Weapon-related crimes are on the rise in the Kurdistan Region where firearms, including sniper rifles and machine guns, are purchased on the black market.
An estimated 70 percent of people in the Kurdistan Region own weapons.
Erbil also saw 62 murders and 60 shooting incidents as gun violence continued to take the lives of people across the Kurdistan Region in 2022, according to the city's police directorate.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Barzani tasked the interior ministry in June with carrying out the strictest gun control measure yet, to ensure an end to the threat posed by weapons to people’s lives.
The decision from the Kurdish premier came hours after a brother allegedly killed his 18-year-old sister and her 21-year-old husband in Erbil on Thursday, only days after two university academics were killed by a former student in the Kurdish capital.
