Mosul far from rehabilitation after ravages of IS group
MOSUL, Iraq — One year after the Iraqi forces liberated the city of Mosul from the Islamic State extremists, tens of thousands of displaced residents are still living in tents, suffering in the scorching summer with temperatures of over 50 C.
Abul Jabbar Mohammed, 62, a displaced man from the town of Tal Afar, about 70 kilometers west of Mosul, is squeezing his 23 family members into a 16-square-meter tent at Hassan Sham refugee camp, around 40 km east of Mosul.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees opened Hassan Sham refugee camp late in 2016 for people who were forced out of their homes in and around Mosul by the war against IS militants.
Mohammed failed to return home in Tal Afar, which he said is still unsecured, and his house was destroyed with no rehabilitation in place for his town, despite its liberation in August 2017.
Despite sufferings and inconveniences in the camp, Mohammed said that “a tent in the camp is better than a palace in an unsecured area with no public services”.
Younis Dha-noon left his home with his family after his house was destroyed by the battles in the IS stronghold in the western side of Mosul.
“I wish I can return to my house, but it was destroyed. I hope the government would compensate me, so I can rebuild it and settle down after four years of displacement,” Dha-noon said.
According to data provided by UNHCR, almost 1 million people fled the fighting in Mosul, with around 109,000 displaced people being distributed in camps south and east of Mosul, located about 400 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
There are also approximately 264,000 displaced people sheltering outside the camps, mostly in host communities in Erbil Province, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Botan Sallahaddin, 28, a manager of refugee camp operator Barzani Charity Foundation, said the camp is currently housing 1,172 families, with a total of 5,677 displaced in the Hassan Sham refugee camp.
He said the UN agencies provide some 70 kg of food to each family per month, which, for some big families, is often not enough.
The agencies also provide 10 hours of electricity a day by generators. Sallahaddin said the camp at least provides safety and secure food and water.
The return of the displaced people to their hometowns is a huge challenge for the Iraqi government and the international humanitarian organizations, as the number of displaced people stood at more than 3.4 million across Iraq during the peak of the crisis.
Jasim al-Attya, deputy minister of the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displaced, said that “most of the displaced people have returned to their homes and all what we have is some 500,000 displaced people registered from the five provinces (Nineveh, Salahudin, Anbar, Diyala and Kirkuk) seized earlier by the IS”.
Attya admitted that the society rejects the families of IS militants, especially in the rural areas, where the tribes there believe in retaliation.