Iraqi paramedic Sarmad Ibrahim cut his teeth treating fellow militiamen in the war against ISIS.
Now he buries Covid-19 victims, an exhausting task where he must also come to grips with Muslim and Christian burial rites.
“So far we’re coping,” Mr Ibrahim said as fellow volunteers from the Imam Ali Combat Brigade prepared to handle a coffin from Baghdad.
“But if we start receiving more bodies we might not be able to bury according to religious rules.”
He and the other team members work at a new cemetery in the southern city of Najaf, Iraq’s only graveyard specifically for those who have died of Covid-19.
Established after an edict from Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, it is dwarfed by the nearby Wadi Al Salam cemetery, the largest in the world, but is expanding.
More than 200 people have died since the outbreak began in Iraq in February and the volunteers say they receive between two and four corpses each day.
Coronavirus in the Middle East
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A worker sprays disinfectants at underground Al Shohadaa metro station in Cairo, Egypt. EPA -
Residents enjoy access to Kite Beach in Dubai's Jumeirah despite the Covid-19 safeguards that are in place. Antonie Robertson/The National -
Residents enjoy opening of Kite Beach in Jumeirah, Dubai, with coronavirus precautions in place. Antonie Robertson / The National -
Operators at their desk at Dubai's Covid-19 Command and Control Centre at Mohammed bin Rashid University, in Dubai. AFP -
Emiratis wearing protective masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic chat in a hall at Mohammed bin Rashid University in Dubai. AFP -
Epmloyees at Future Tyres Trading in Al Qouz, Dubai. Reem Mohammed / The National -
A member of the Popular Mobilisation Forces who volunteered to work in a cemetery wears a protective suit as he burns clothes they used for burial, near the new Wadi Al-Salam cemetery, which is dedicated to those who died of the coronavirus disease, on the outskirts of the city of Najaf, Iraq. Reuters -
A vendor, wearing a protective face mask against the spread of coronavirus, adjusts Turkish traditional-style lanterns, at the iconic 15th century Grand Bazaar in Istanbul as it reopens following weeks of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. AP Photo -
Mannequins are seen placed between tables to make customers sit according to social-distancing rules in a bar that reopened after being closed for weeks, amid the spread of the coronavirus, in Istanbul, Turkey. Reuters -
A Palestinian graduate uses his laptop as he sits in a coffee shop amid the coronavirus crisis, in Gaza City. Reuters -
A man sells cigarettes on a street in Arbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, amid a lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus. AFP -
A man wearing a protective face mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus walks next to a wall painted with the colorus of Egypt's flag, after the government made wearing masks mandatory in public places and public transport, in Cairo. Reuters -
Egyptians wearing protective face masks at the underground Al Shohadaa metro station in Cairo. EPA -
A view of an almost empty newly reopened hotel private beach in Aqaba, some 300km south of Amman, Jordan. Jordan government announced on 27 May that it will consider reopening tourist sites in the coming weeks after deciding on the required safety procedures. EPA -
A man watches as passengers board a ship in the port of Algiers, the capital of Algeria, heading to the French port city of Marseille, in the first ferry between the two countries since the outbreak. AFP -
A Libyan doctor takes blood sample from a shopkeeper to test for the coronavirus in the Tajura area, a coastal suburb east of the capital Tripoli. AFP -
A security guard wearing a face mask checks the body temperature of a customer in a shopping mall in Dbayeh, northern Beirut, Lebanon. EPA -
A Yemeni child wearing a protective face mask carries a bicycle on to a pedestrian bridge amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in Sanaa. EPA
The country’s confirmed coronavirus infections have jumped from about 3,000 to more than 6,000 in just over two weeks, Health Ministry figures show.
Mr Ibrahim and his comrades joined the brigade as part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces paramilitary umbrella group to fight ISIS several years ago.
While this enemy is very different, the work is physically and emotionally draining.
Bodies often arrive at night. The volunteers, in full protective suits, wash and wrap the corpses in black burial shrouds before putting them back in the coffins.
They carry the coffins to the graves under the headlights of their vehicles.
The team has struggled to expand beyond its dozen or so members.
Some medics say suspected exposure to the virus has alienated them from their families and neighbours, and for these volunteers it is no different, even though there is no evidence that Covid-19 can be caught from corpses.
“If we face a shortage of men, I’ll have to ask friends or other fighters to come and help us," said "Abu Sajad", 46, another militiaman.
"I’m afraid that if someone catches the virus, relatives will blame me for it."
Abu Sajad had not told his family that he was working in the cemetery and said the friends who knew were reluctant to meet him.
Some tribes and local religious leaders have refused to bury victims of the virus in local cemeteries, which is why the new graveyard was set up.
“In the beginning, bodies were brought back to the morgue where they stayed for up to 15 days,” said Abdul Hassan Kadhim, who leads the burial volunteer team.
“They ended up being buried without proper religious rites.”
At this cemetery the team must respect those rites.
Relatives are allowed to watch from a distance and a student from a local seminary leads prayers around each Muslim grave. Two Christians were recently buried there as well.
“We know they’d prefer to be buried in their own graveyards but because of the pandemic, they now rest here,” Abu Sajad said, kneeling in front of one of the Christian graves.
“We asked for advice on Christian burials, to be able to carry them out according to their own rituals and traditions.
"I didn’t know about them before but we did everything the way our Christian brothers told us.”
