Gulf Today

Mosul still in ruins despite Daesh ouster

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MOSUL: Ahmed Hamed has dreamt of rebuilding his pulverised home in Iraq’s Mosul from the moment government forces recaptured the city from militants in 2017. But three years on, it remains a pile of rubble.

He is among tens of thousands of Iraqis who have filed claims to the Nineveh province’s Subcommite­e for Compensati­on, seeking reparation­s for material goods, injuries and even lives lost in the months-long fight to retake Mosul from the Daesh group.

“I still haven’t goten a cent, even though it’s been so long since the liberation,” said Hamed, 25, who works menial day jobs to afford a small apartment.

His original home lies in Mosul’s ravaged western half, where Daesh made its final stand in the city and reconstruc­tion has been the slowest.

Iraq gathered $30 billion in pledges from internatio­nal donors in 2018 to rebuild, but virtually none of the funds have been disbursed.

The lack of progress has been widely blamed on Iraq’s infamous bureaucrac­y, corruption that has siphoned off reconstruc­tion funds and polarised city politics.

Amid the novel coronaviru­s pandemic and plummeting oil prices, Iraq’s government is struggling to rake in enough monthly revenues to break even — pushing rebuilding even lower on its priorities list.

“Politician­s keep telling us we need to go home,” Hamed said, slamming the government’s insistence on closing down the camps where more than one million Iraqis, rendered homeless by the fighting, are still seeking shelter. “But how? Our homes are destroyed and there isn’t a single public service that works.”

According to a Norwegian Refugee Council survey in Mosul, over 270,000 people remain unable to return home and of those living there, 64 per cent said they would be unable to pay rent in the next three months.

Every day, dozens of people queue outside a reception window at the Subcommite­e for Compensati­on, clutching thick packets of multicolou­red forms they pray will be approved by the central commitee in Baghdad. Among them under the midsummer sun was Ali Elias, hoping for news of his son, a soldier kidnapped by Daesh in 2017.

“I filed a claim on him shortly ater the liberation, at least so we know what happened to him. It was sent to Baghdad, but no one answered,” the 65-year-old said.

 ??  ?? A tractor clears debris in Mosul. File / Agence France-presse
A tractor clears debris in Mosul. File / Agence France-presse

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