MENA: Impacts of Gun Violence on Children During 2015

After a lengthy and difficult review of incidences of violence against children perpetrated in the MENA region during 2015, DI Monitoring Committee agreed to highlight three cases on the impact of gun violence on children in Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.

In all three cases the children lost their lives, i.e., they paid the ultimate price. A brief description of the incidents (see below) was shared with Ms. Rebecca Peters, and it is likely that those cases will be included in the 2015 report of the UN Special Representative on Violence Against Children.

 

  • Amman, Jordan, August 2015 – A 6-year-old child was murdered in festive firing during a wedding in Irbid. A man reportedly shot the child and was later charged with premeditated murder. Based on the forensic report, the bullet smashed into the child’s jaw, shattering teeth and obliterating bone. It then sliced through the flesh, damaged the third and fourth cervical vertebrae, came out of his shoulder to slice across the foot of another child, who stood close to the victim.

Here is a video of the shooting that occurred during the wedding.

 

  • Dakahlia, Egypt, July 2015 –  6-year-old Ahmed Wahba Abdasameea was shot dead when a gunfight erupted between two rival families (al-Mudboly and al-Faar) in the village of Kafr al-Taraa al-Qadim. According to witnesses, Ahmed was an innocent bystander whose family had nothing to do with the dispute.

 

  • Baghdad, Iraq, September 2015 – A 13-year-old child was shot dead by her father in al-Saidiya district, south of Baghdad. That evening, the child was sitting with her sibling in their house when their Dad deliberately opened fire on them before escaping the scene. The security forces arrived and transported the bodies to the Department of Forensic Medicine.