Iran orders 60,000 to evacuate five districts in Ahvaz: state media

CAIRO – 10 April 2019: Iranian authorities have ordered residents of five districts of the southwestern city of Ahvaz to evacuate immediately on Wednesday as floodwaters entered the capital of key oil-producing Khuzestan province, state television reported.

The province’s governor, Gholamreza Shariati, said he ordered the evacuations as a “precautionary and preventive move to avert any danger,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

The five districts have an estimated population of between 60,000 and 70,000.

Reports and activists have affirmed that the Iranian regime has been attempting to displace the Arab population from their lands and disperse their presence, especially in Ahvaz.

The regime is seeking to take advantage of the floods crisis by submerging villages in Ahvaz to force their residents to leave their homes and lands and then be replace with other nationalities like the Bakhtiaris and Lurs, The Reference reported.

Reports have revealed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are trying to block the floods from reaching their established oil facilities by diverting the water flow towards the houses of Arabs, which led to armed clashes with the IRGC. At least nine citizens were killed during these clashes.

The floods have killed at least 70 people, and forced the mass evacuation of thousands, as heavy rain continues to fall on much of the country.

Reports said at least 1,900 cities and villages have been flooded, "causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Iranian water and agriculture infrastructures."