Mosul: A year after pro-government forces recaptured Mosul from the IS group, much of Iraq’s second city lies in ruins and many of its residents see little reason to celebrate. “We were liberated but what have we come back to? Our homes have been destroyed,” said mother of seven Umm Mohammed. On July 10, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi declared victory in the battle for the city after a nearly nine-month offensive against the extremists. The fiercest fighting took place around western Mosul’s Old City, where Umm Mohammed’s home near the Great Mosque of Al Nuri has been reduced to rubble.
The mosque, once a famous landmark with its leaning minaret, is where the elusive chief, “caliph” Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, made his only public appearance. IS used explosives to blow up the famed 12th century mosque as the army closed in on them last summer.
Like many mosques, houses, schools and other buildings across Mosul, all that is left of it is a pile of rubble. Although life has gone back to normal in some parts of eastern Mosul, the massive clean-up of the western part of the city only began a few weeks ago. In a report released this week, the Norwegian Refugee Council bemoaned conditions in the city.
“More than 380,000 people are still displaced in and around Mosul as the city lies in ruins with a staggering eight million tonnes of debris,” it said.
No official festivities were planned on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of Mosul’s liberation from the brutal three-year rule of IS, which had used the northern city as the capital of its “caliphate” straddling the border with neighbouring Syria.
Residents said they had little to celebrate. “The huge destruction has emptied our joy of any meaning,” said Abu Ghassoon, a 44-year-old unemployed man who lives in east Mosul after his home in the west was destroyed.
Ghadir Ibrahim Fattah, 35, agreed.
“We had expected reconstruction to begin immediately after (the extremists were ousted) but nothing happened, and this has demoralised the people,” he said.
Residents accused the central government of dragging its feet, while the NRC has said the international community “is not doing enough”.
The Norwegian aid group estimates that $874 million (750 million euros) is needed to repair basic infrastructure in Mosul. “What was hailed by the Iraqi authorities and the international community as a victory a year ago has not translated to relief from abject misery for many Iraqis from Mosul,” said its Iraq Country Director Wolfgang Gressmann.
Ghanem Hamid, a provincial official, said the “central government has neglected the province” of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital.
“They have not offered us anything worth mentioning,” he said.
He noted that two major international conferences on rebuilding Iraq were held before and after Mosul was retaken — one in Paris and the other in Kuwait — but said donors’ pledges of massive funds had not materialised. — AFP
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