Jolie urges international community not to forget Mosul

ERBIL (Iraq): The United Nations refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie visited Mosul in northern Iraq on Saturday and urged the international community not to forget residents trying to rebuild their city.

Iraqi forces seized Mosul in July last year from Islamic State militants, who occupied the city three years earlier and turned it into a stronghold of a “caliphate”, in a military campaign that saw 900,000 residents flee.

The actress met families from western Mosul and walked through bombed-out streets, according to footage and photos provided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Normality has returned to many parts of Mosul, with displaced residents leaving camps nearby and going back home.

But the old city in west Mosul was largely destroyed during a campaign by a 100,000-strong alliance of Iraqi government units, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shia militias backed by air support from a United States-led coalition. Reconstruction has been slow.

“This is the worst devastation I have seen in all my years working with UNHCR. People here have lost everything,” Jolie said in a UN statement.

“They are destitute. They have no medicine for their children, and many have no running water or basic services,” she said. “I hope there will be a continued commitment to rebuilding and stabilising the whole of the city. And I call on the international community not to forget Mosul.”

Jolie has worked for UNHCR since 2001, visiting uprooted civilians from Iraq to Cambodia and Kenya. It was her fifth visit to Iraq, UNHCR said.

AFP PIC United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees special envoy Angelina Jolie (left) speaking to Mohamed and his family during a visit to the Old City in western Mosul on Saturday.