Control Risks has organised a sponsored climb of the highest mountain in Iraq.
On October 7, seeking to raise funds for the Salah Rahman Sports Foundation, James Blount and Duncan Barber of Control Risks climbed 3600m Mount Halgurd. Accompanied by Sirwan Rahman, the brother of the late Salah Rahman, and by the Viscount (Ned) Cranborne, who was visiting Kurdistan purely to take part in this expedition and to support this cause, the team has already passed their fundraising target of £6,000.
James Blount, the Control Risks director for the Kurdistan Region, said: “This was a great chance both to climb a beautiful and remote mountain and to contribute to a project which I believe is of importance to the Kurdish people – and which is a fitting commemoration of the life of Salah Rahman, whose family have become good friends. Having worked and lived for seven months in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where I started up the local Control Risks operation, I recognise the unique nature of this outpost of democracy and stability in a troubled part of the world.”
The Salah Rahman Sport Foundation, a UK registered charity, was established to commemorate Salah Rahman, a sportsman and Millwall supporter, who, with his father, the leading Kurdish politician, Sami Abdul Rahman, and 96 others, died in a terrorist action on February 1, 2004 in Erbil. The Foundation will promote and fund sport at grassroots level in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, seeking to reinforce social cohesion in the country.
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