In Pictures

Mosul residents left to rebuild destroyed homes

A year after the fall of ISIL, civilians rue lack of support after their homes were heavily damaged or destroyed.

A group of friends helps repair Ahmed Al Ebadi house in western Mosul. The house first got hit by a mortar, before being damaged by an Iraqi army vehicle. It was destroyed by a governmental bulldozer during the military campaign to retake the city of Mosul from ISIL. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

11 Nov 2018

Mosul, Iraq – During the nine-month battle to retake Iraq’s Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, 54,000 houses were destroyed in and around the city.

Since July last year, when victory was declared in Mosul, the city has witnessed numerous reconstruction projects run by government organisations and NGOs.

The vast majority of these projects are taking place in the old city of Mosul, focussing mostly on cleaning the streets, helping rebuild schools and basic infrastructures, such as water supply and electricity network.

A fund of $400m was established in 2015 to help Iraq’s reconstruction.

However, the city received only $252,000 in 2017 and in 2018, the Governor of Nineveh Governorate, Nofal Hammadi, claimed to have received nothing from the fund, Mosul’s municipality chief Abdelsattar al-Hibbu told Reuters news agency earlier this year.

Furthermore, Hammadi told Al Jazeera last month that no budget was allocated to rebuild private housing in Mosul.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, civilians whose homes have been flattened are indeed forced to fend off for themselves.

Ahmed Al Ebadi, a west Mosul resident, requested financial compensation from the court earlier this year.

“I received nothing for the damage caused by the Iraqi army,” said Ebadi.

Prior to ISIL, Mosul’s predominantly Sunni population felt marginalised by Baghdad’s central government for years.

Now, many are forced into debt as they have to borrow money to rebuild their houses.

“I am a poor man, I can’t afford to pay $25,000 to rebuild my house,” said Mohammed Hazim Abbas, a resident of west Mosul.

For many Mosulians, a house is seen as a first step towards rebuilding their family life, which too got devastated by the war against ISIL.

'Neither local authorities nor international organisations rebuild houses,' said Mutaz Yosif, director of Helping Hand Organization, an Iraqi NGO that operates across Mosul to assist families in rebuilding their houses. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

Ghania Ghanim Mohammed, a mother of nine children, loses her temper while denouncing a lack of government support in term of reconstruction. 'No one is helping me, how am I going to rebuild my house? By contracting a loan again?' she asked. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

'The reconstruction is ongoing and infrastructures are better than before. Some houses were repaired thanks to citizens' donations, but there is no specific budget to rebuild them,' said Nineveh Governor Nofal Hammadi. In November 2017, he was temporarily voted out of office over corruption accusations. [Sebastian Castelier /Al Jazeera]

Mosul's Old City, the physical representation of the cultural diversity that characterised Iraq, concentrated most of the ISIL fighters until 2017 and was flattened to a great extent by the coalition's air attacks. Between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed, with at least 3,200 as a result of military actions led by the US-led coalition against ISIL. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

Numerous districts in west Mosul remain uninhabitable, as 40,000 homes were destroyed there during the fight against ISIL. According to figures released by the Norwegian Refugee Council in July 2018, about eight million tonnes of debris was present in Mosul and more than 63,000 families are still displaced inside and around the city. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

'How am I supposed to cook for my guests? It is a shame to not even serve you a cup of tea,' said Ghania said while clearing the rubble left behind. 'I do not know when my house will return as it was before.' [Sebastian Castelier /Al Jazeera]

Ahmed Al Ebadi got a $500 loan from several friends to carry out basic work in the one-bedroom house. To rebuild the whole house, he will need more than $5,000. 'Alive in appearance, I feel dead inside,' he said. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

In the months ahead, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) aims to rehabilitate a total of 10,000 houses in west Mosul. However, the program only concerns houses less than 60 percent damaged, and not 'full rebuilds'. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

'Our government is composed of thieves, they have no idea how to run a country, how do you expect them to rebuild Mosul,' Abu Luay, in west Mosul, told Al Jazeera. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

Mohammed Hazim Abbas, 52, set up a tent in front of what remained of his house that was destroyed by an air attack in 2017. He did so to protest lack of government support to the reconstruction of Mosul's old city. 'We've gained nothing from post-2003 governments,' said Abbas, spilling a glass of water on the dusty floor in a fit of rage. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

Qathan Ahmed Younis, 55, bought his house in 1988. 'It was a beautiful house with a view on the Tigris river. But my house was half-demolished by an airstrike in 2017, and now there are rats,' said Younis. Unemployed, he hopes to rebuild his property 'thanks to the generosity of other Iraqis'. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

At a conference held in Kuwait on February 2018, international donors, including nations part of the US-led coalition against ISIL, pledged $30bn to help rebuild Iraq. The amount was pledged mostly in credit facilities and investment. But widespread corruption in Iraq has raised concerns. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

Iraq's central government did not send any reconstruction fund for 2018, the Governor of Nineveh Governorate claimed, mentioning 'slow administrative procedures'. So far, no families living in Mosul have been compensated for the loss of their houses and claims for financial compensation are piling at Mosul's court. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]

'Mosul remained silent when ISIL entered the city in 2014. So yes, we all made a mistake, for which we are paying the price today,' said Ahmed Al Ebadi. [Sebastian Castelier/Al Jazeera]