(MENAFN- Mid-East Info) Sheikh Wasan receives off-grid electricity in a project led by Idris Nechirvan Barzani

A Kurdish village repeatedly targeted during the Anfal campaign has received round-the-clock electricity for the first time, as a locally funded solar project brings reliable power to residents still rebuilding their lives nearly four decades after a chemical attack.

Sheikh Wasan, a village in the Balisan Valley, was hit with mustard gas and nerve agents on 16 August 1987, killing more than two hundred civilians and separating families in one of the earliest documented chemical assaults on Kurdish communities. Many survivors spent years in detention camps and returned to homes that had been abandoned or destroyed.

The latest project, delivered by the Rwanga Foundation under the leadership of its founder Idris Nechirvan Barzani, has installed seventy-two solar systems comprising more than four hundred panels. Every home in the village, along with the mosque, school, health centre and Martyrs' Hall, now receives uninterrupted off-grid electricity. The upgrade benefits nearly three hundred residents who have resettled there in recent years.

Barzani described the initiative as a form of restitution for villages that, in his words,“paid the heaviest price under the former regime”. The foundation has been working on similar rural electrification efforts since 2013, with projects that have supported local employment in installation, maintenance and small agricultural ventures made possible through dependable power.

Residents say the new energy supply marks a turning point after decades of neglect. One survivor, who asked not to be identified, recalled losing relatives in the attack and said the renewed access to light, refrigeration and study hours for children represents a long-awaited measure of justice.

Human rights groups have called repeatedly for wider support for communities affected by the Anfal campaign. The privately funded scheme in Sheikh Wasan illustrates how regional initiatives are moving ahead in the absence of broader assistance from Baghdad or international donors.

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