Kurdistan’s Regional Government (KRG) has failed to pay the salary of a significant number of Kurdish armed forces (Pêşmerge) although according to recent estimates, Southern Kurdistan contains around 45 billion barrels of oil – 6th largest oil reserve in the world.

What moved me to tears and instilled within me a sense of anger, disappointment and frustration is the following video, whereby a Kurdish Pêşmerge speaks on a local TV channel about his situation. He explains that he has not been paid for the past 3 months, and opens his wallet to show that he doesn’t have a single Iraqi dinar in his pocket despite being ready to shed his blood for Kurdistan.

For the past 7 months, they have only received one month’s salary, which was paid three months ago. They belong to Unit 3, Brigade 5 and the Pêşmerge forces come to a total of 1,300 within that unit.