Sadly, many of the people who appear in the pages of Between the devil and the deep blue sky have been killed or forced from their homes. Exact figures are impossible to come by, but the UN says almost 35,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2006 alone, and since the fall of Baghdad more than two million have fled the country.  Scroll down for updates on the fate of Gina's friends in Iraq.
                       
Lama and Abdul Basir
In 2006 Lama found a job as an office manager with an aid organisation in Jordan and moved with Abdul Basir and her two youngest children to the capital Amman. Her oldest son continues to live with his grandmother in Basra.

Sameera
In 2006, Gina received word that Sameera’s husband had lost his job and that the mother of four had found work in the Green Zone to support her family. Her brother was one of many innocent bystanders killed in a suicide bombing in Baghdad in 2005. Since then, all attempts to contact Sameera have failed. Iraq lacks a functioning postal system, Sameera has no telephone and efforts to trace her through her neighbours and friends have been unsuccessful.

Mohammad the shoeshine boy 
In 2005, Mohammad joined the long list of innocent Iraqis whose lives have been cut tragically short by the turmoil in their country when he was killed in a car bomb attack not far from the Sumer Land Hotel, where he worked as a shoeshine boy to help his family earn enough to survive.   



Roula and Jinan
The chaos in Iraq has forced hundreds of thousands of families apart, with husbands, wives and children flung to every corner of the globe. Roula fled the violence in Baghdad and found a new job in Amman, Jordan where she runs a relief organisation that helps refugees. Jinan was unable to find suitable work in Jordan and so he took a job with an engineering firm in Saudi Arabia. He misses his family, friends and his poker games. Their son, Ahmed, is attending university in Canada and their daughter is studying in the UK.

Yacout and Faisal
Yacout is also living alone in Amman, missing her family and homesick for Baghdad. Faisal remains in Baghdad where he works for an international investment company. The two want to be together but they need the money to keep their children in school in the US and away from the violence in Iraq. 

Ghada and Hassan
Ghada is also living and working in Amman, and she, Roula and Yacout try to support each other in their new lives far from Baghdad. Ghada continues to work for the UN and her children are attending school in Jordan. In 2007, escalating violence finally forced Hassan from Baghdad. Reunited with his family, he’s searching for work in Jordan. 
 
Uruba
Currently Uruba is living in Amman and working for UNICEF, but she misses her family and her country terribly. She worries a great deal about her mother, grandmother and brother whose diabetes has worsened. Drugs are in short supply in Iraq and he has to undertake the perilous desert crossing to Amman to receive medical treatment because his doctors have all fled the country. A huge number of medical specialists and other professionals have left Baghdad. Many were threatened with beheading or warned that children would be kidnapped, in an attempt by terrorists to destroy the social fabric of Iraq. 

Hayat
Hayat's family has been torn apart by the chaos in Baghdad. Hayat is working with UNICEF in Amman but her husband refuses to leave his homeland. Hayat has suffered severe bouts of depression although she’s been feeling better recently after her husband’s company moved its base of operations to Erbil in northern Iraq – a safer area than bomb and bullet-riddled Baghdad. In 2007, her son finally agreed to leave Baghdad and join Nashita in Amman. He was extremely reluctant to abandon his medical studies in the Iraqi capital, but the level of violence became intolerable. He was also disheartened by the growing rift between Sunnis and Shias. He has a traditional Sunni name – Omar - and some Shia hospital patients refused to be treated by him once they spotted his name tag. Hayat's daughter is engaged to a young Iraqi man living in Saudi Arabia and will soon move to Riyadh. 

Labeeb and Ammar
Labeeb and Ammar continue to live in Baghdad, although they say they would leave the country if they had the means to do so. Work with the ABC dried up when the organisation decided it was too dangerous to continue operating in Iraq. Labeeb now edits a magazine for a government ministry. He works from home, which helps to minimise his need to travel Baghdad’s deadly streets. He describes Baghdad as a jungle, with danger lurking everywhere. He’s particularly worried about the impact of the violence on his son and two teenage daughters. Their lives have been greatly restricted by the chaos outside their front door and they put their lives at risk every time they journey to school.

Majdi, the UNICEF engineer who accompanied Gina and Sean Penn to “Saddam City”
Tragically, Majdi – whose real name is Janan Jabero - was killed by unknown attackers in Baghdad in 2007. Janan had sent his family to live in Syria and they raised the alarm after failing to hear from him for four days. A search team sent out by UNICEF found Janan’s bullet-riddled car at a police station and his body was located in a city morgue. Janan was a courageous man of great optimism. In 2003, just before the start of the war, Janan was the only person brave enough to admit openly to me that the ousting of Saddam Hussein would bring better days to Iraq. At that time many other Iraqis shared his opinion, but the threat of reprisals from the regime kept them silent. Right up until his death Janan never abandoned hope that that Iraq could overcome its troubles. Click here to read an inspiring message written by Janan just prior to his death

Rashid
Years of mismanagement by the Saddam Hussein regime and more than a decade of sanctions had left Rashid and other highly qualified Iraqi professionals unemployed or working menial jobs to survive. After the fall of Baghdad Rashid finally had the opportunity to give up his job as a guard and put his education and translating skills to work once more. He found a job as a project officer with the international NGO Handicap International. However in 2004 escalating violence forced Handicap International to close its doors and Rashid was laid off. He was unable to find a new job in Baghdad and moved back to his family home in Diyala governorate north of Baghdad. Sadly, Diyala and its capital Baqubah are among the most dangerous regions in Iraq, wracked by frequent car bombings and suicide attacks.