IRAQ: One month after wedding hall fire tragedy, Baghdede community mourns 18th group of victims of wedding hall fire, total number of burials now 130

BAGHDEDE, Iraq — The Nineveh Plains town of Baghdede (Qaraqosh / Hamdaniya), Iraq, a town plagued by an ongoing tragedy, has laid to rest the 18th group of victims of the wedding hall fire, raising the total number of those interred to 130.

The town’s churches persist in offering prayers and organizing candlelight marches to provide solace for the souls of the tragedy’s victims and to promote healing for the injured.

While Baghdede bids farewell to this latest group of victims, the town remains haunted by the magnitude of the tragedy, with additional injured individuals in hospitals, many of them in critical condition.

Condolences are still pouring into the Syriac Catholic Diocese of Baghdede, where Archbishop Benedict Younan Hanno, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Mosul, welcomed Dutch Ambassador Johannes Lindert Sande and French Consul General Jean-Christophe Auger. They extended their sympathies to the victims of the ongoing tragedy.

Archbishop Hanno has conveyed a message to all members of the archdiocese, particularly those from Baghdede, urging composure and patience and to distance themselves from actions incompatible with the principles of the Christian spirit of fraternal love.

Hanno has called for unity, warning against the perils of extremist ideologies that may divide them. He emphasized the importance of vigilance, with renewed faith in the integrity of the Iraqi judiciary system as it strives to deliver justice in these trying times.