From October 2016 to July 2017, Mosul, Iraq’s second city, became the scene of the most significant urban warfare since World War II. The Iraqi army, supported by the peshmerga Kurdish forces and an international coalition are fighting to dislodge the Islamic State (IS or Daesh) organization, which had made the city the “capital” of its “caliphate” in 2014. This three-year sequence has led to the displacement of nearly a million people and destruction. Six years after its recapture by state forces, Mosul faces significant reconstruction challenges, as residents seek to transform the hardships they have faced into suggestions for a future life.
The capture of Mosul by the IS did not cause a general and disorganized flight. When, at the beginning of June 2014, the first jihadist attacks resounded in the city, nothing worried a population (around 2.5 million people) whose experience of diffuse threats was a daily part of life. As every time they found themselves caught up in the clashes that had broken out since 2003, they froze, waiting for a return to calm. But the withdrawal of Iraqi security forces heralded the first population movements. They mainly concerned those who were in danger of death because of their religious or professional affiliation: civil servants, Shiite Arabs and Turkmen, Kurds, Christians, Shabaks and Yazidis left the city, thinking they were taking shelter. It is estimated that 75% of the population remained in place. (1).
While the people of Mosul welcomed ISIS, whose establishment put an end to state governance that they considered discretionary and corrupt, their hopes for freedom faded as the organization imposed an authoritarian power based on a strict interpretation of the Koran. ISIS sowed terror through the use of extreme violence. For nearly two years, the population lived in fear of being tortured or executed on the basis of mere suspicion. In addition, they faced a major famine, a consequence of the first operations carried out to weaken the jihadists. At the end of 2016, in the space of three months, the military recaptured the east bank of the Tigris. They advanced on the ground to limit the destruction and the death of civilians. Few residents left the city; they moved to neighboring neighborhoods depending on the clashes. On the other hand, the troops are progressing more painfully on the west bank, where the majority of the IS fighters are entrenched. The configuration of certain districts prevents the use of armored vehicles, so the air force intervenes massively, reducing 15 districts, including the old city, to ruins. (2)Authorities are trying to evacuate residents who have been used as human shields by ISIS. But airstrikes and the use of mortars have killed between 9,000 and 11,000 people trapped in the fighting.
Rebuild homes, restore heritage
Although Baghdad publicly announced the “defeat” of ISIS in July 2017, Mosul faces major challenges: 43% of homes and 60 to 70% of infrastructure are affected, around a million Mosul residents are waiting to be able to return to a home, everyone must identify ways to symbolize their suffering in order to give it meaning. (3). The financial cost of rehabilitating and rebuilding housing and infrastructure in Mosul is estimated at $1.1 billion, a significant portion of which should be devoted to the west bank. The Iraqi government and international organizations are faced with a colossal project that includes electricity and water supply networks, roads, bridges, hospitals, factories, schools and housing. This is an opportunity to propose more effective development and planning plans than before. Indeed, Mosul, like many localities in Iraq, was already suffering from the failure or absence of infrastructure. The city also bore the scars of previous conflicts and was facing irregular urban expansion due to the rural exodus that has affected the surrounding regions since the 2000s.
At the request of the Iraqi government, the World Bank has initiated the creation of a multidisciplinary team responsible for developing reconstruction planning in partnership with local authorities. The UN agencies UN-Habitat, UNESCO, IOM and UNDP are the main actors. However, the implementation of the projects is subject to the prior completion of mine clearance and clearance operations. The war has produced approximately 11 million tons of debris, concentrated in the old city (4)The ecological impact is considerable. The population complains of being exposed to water, air and land pollution.
Six years after the defeat of ISIS, most places have been secured, but the Mosul landscape on the west bank remains littered with rubble. The rehabilitation of homes on the east bank, less affected by the fighting, was completed in the space of a year. On the other hand, the process is bogged down on the west bank, where only some projects in the north have been completed. Like the housing issues, the restoration of infrastructure is also struggling to make progress. While the municipality has rebuilt the water treatment plants, the power stations and a significant part of the university, not all the hospitals have been put back into service and the schools are overwhelmed by the number of students waiting to move into new buildings. (5).
Alongside the rehabilitation of vital infrastructure for the population, the authorities are making the restoration of the city’s historical heritage a priority. This policy of preserving monuments is also part of a symbolic desire to make amends for the deliberate destruction carried out by ISIS in order to wipe out a sense of belonging and memory. Again, most of the projects concern the old city, where many archaeological, cultural and religious sites are located. After three years of preparatory work, the reconstruction of the Al-Nouri Mosque and the Al-Saa’a and Al-Tahera churches began in March 2022, funded by UNESCO and the United Arab Emirates. Other reconstruction projects concern historic houses, which have an immense heritage value due to their unique architectural identity: irregular shape, size and height, arched portal, pointed arch windows, wall ornaments and local marble finishing. UNESCO joined the European Union (EU) in supporting the reconstruction of 124 houses. But although there is no shortage of foreign funding, the work of local teams remains colossal given the extent of the destruction. It will take years for the buildings to be restored, while some elements are definitely lost.
A local political competition
Mosul residents, especially those working on reconstruction, criticize the lack of coordination between the actors involved in the latter. As in other intervention scenes, international and non-governmental organizations continue to be dependent on their own neoliberal action logics. Thus, projects sometimes overlap and respond more to the specifications of aid structures than to the needs expressed by the inhabitants. Furthermore, the Iraqi political context hinders the implementation of programs in some cases. The establishment of ISIS and the war that was waged to dislodge the organization reconfigure the local scene. From 2009 to 2013, several Sunni parties formed the Al-Habda union, which dominated the provincial council of Nineveh. The campaign of violence led by the Nouri al-Maliki administration (2006-2014) against Sunni paramilitary groups and the discriminatory and repressive attitude of his army towards the population led to numerous mobilizations and fueled a wave of discontent on which the IS and other groups, such as the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyya (nostalgic for Saddam Hussein), would rely to take control of the city in 2014.
The overthrow of Daesh in 2017 tipped the balance of power in favor of the Shiite National Bloc and the Popular Mobilization Units (Hashed al-Shaabi). For his alleged role in the capture of Mosul, Athil Nujaifi was removed from his position as governor in 2015 and replaced by Nofal Agub. In the pay of the Shiite parties and the Popular Mobilization Units, he was accused of corruption and embezzlement of public funds allocated to reconstruction. In concert with the Shiite armed alliance that now controls Mosul, they extort bribes from construction companies, demand taxes on all movements of materials, and use their power in the tender market. (6). Furthermore, Nolaf Agub regularly refuses to sign development projects led by international and non-governmental organizations, forcing them to bypass the local administration by going directly through Baghdad, which delays their implementation. Although he was relieved of his duties in 2019, his actions have had significant consequences. No coherent Sunni political movement has emerged while the Popular Mobilization Units have had time to consolidate their roots within the provincial administration. The appointment of General Najim al-Jibouri, the new governor of Nineveh, seems to have won the support of the inhabitants, but the fact remains that in the absence of coordination between the governor’s office, the provincial council and the central government, the reconstruction and development of Mosul is suffering to the detriment of the population.
