Sanctions Claimed
10,000 lives in August
Iraqi News Agency
9/20/99

Baghdad, Sept 20, INA (18:00)

Iraqi Health Ministry statistics indicate that 10,187 children and elderly people had died in Iraq in August of different diseases caused by the sanctions imposed on Iraq for more than 9 years now.

According to the figures released by the Ministry's Health and Vital Statistics Department on Sunday, 7632 children under five years of age had died of diarrhoea, pneumonia, respiratory infection and malnutrition, compared to 302 in August 1989. Among elderly people, 2555 deaths have been reported because of heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes and malignant tumours, much higher than August 1989 figures which reported 480 deaths for this category.

Since the imposition of sanctions on August 6, 1990 and up to late August 1999, 1,187,486 Iraqis had died of sanctions-related causes.