“If you don't help me, I'll jump,” Ali, 17, says, facing the camera from his roof. In this short video published on July 15 and which made the rounds on social networks, this young Iraqi teenager speaks directly to US President Joe Biden. A desperate cry from Iraqi youth who can no longer live in a country where there is almost no electricity, where living conditions are difficult, where everything is lacking. On Facebook and Instagram, the teenager keeps a diary where he regularly testifies to the problems of his country, bruised by successive wars. And where the United States still has many soldiers. “When in other countries, young people like me study, we here,we are just happy to have fuel to run our generators to have a little electricity, ”says Ali.
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Three days later and after more than 700,000 views on Facebook and Instagram, the SOS launched by Ali to the American authorities was heard.
On Twitter, it was the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Joey Hood, who responded.
"Please don't jump off the roof.
We in America love you, don't skip… Life is precious, we can do it better together on Iraqis and Americans, ”he said in a video retweeted by the US Embassy- United in Baghdad.