Iraq arrests 31 for alleged price gouging

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi security forces arrested 31 people on charges of excessively increasing food prices amid supply chain shortages caused by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. 

The 31 detainees were arrested in various Iraqi provinces for “exploiting people” amid increasing food prices, the Security Media Cell, the Iraqi military’s official media, reported on Tuesday. 

Food and energy prices have surged worldwide since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, affecting many countries in the process, including Iraq. 

The Iraqi Minister of Commerce Alaa al-Jabouri said foodstuffs would be prepared for people in the next two days to help them cope with the increasing prices and shortages, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The government and parliament are working on stabilizing food prices, according to al-Jabbouri. 

Othman al-Ghanmi, Iraq’s interior minister, said that police are monitoring the market and are on the lookout for anyone attempting to profiteer amid price hikes. 

The Russian-Ukrainian war has also affected global energy prices. For example, a barrel of Brent crude oil was traded for nearly $140 on Monday, $7 less than its record-high price in 2008. 

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that his country would no longer allow Russian energy imports to toughen the series of sanctions Washington imposed on Moscow over the invasion.

Biden pledged to the American people that he would work with US allies to release oil reserves so they would feel less pain “at the gas pumps.”