SUMMARY

The Dereiat tribe stems from the marshlands between Tigris and Euphrat in southern Iraq. The population in these areas are often referred to as Ma’dan, meaning dwellers of the plains. The Dereiat tribe, as many of the Ma’dan, raise water buffalo and live off farming or fishing. For this reason they were highly affected by the Saddam Hussein government’s tactics of drying up the marshlands.

The Dereiat tribe has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.