One year after liberation, little progress made in Mosul

Mosul celebrates one year of liberation
Mosul celebrates one year of liberation
By Euronews
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One year after liberation, little progress made in Mosul as residents wait for reconstruction.

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There were scenes of jubiliation in Mosul on Monday (July 10) as residents celebrated the first anniversary of their liberation from ISIL control.

But while the Iraqi flag is once again flying over the country's second-largest city, there is a lot of work left to do.

The battle to retake Mosul left the area in ruins and hundreds of thousands of people are still without homes.

Local authorities blame the central government in Baghdad for the slow pace of reconstruction:

"God willing, next year we will celebrate this event again, hoping that the reconstruction of the city will have progressed and that all displaced people in the area will be back in their homes," said Najim al-Jibouri, a military commander in Mosul.

"We are asking the government to rebuild the western part of Mosul and bring stability back to the city," resident Mustafa Saad al-Naimi said. 

Large swathes of the city - particularly the western area - are utterly destroyed. After the city's liberation in 2017, the Iraqi government made its reconstruction a priority, but the long process of clearing rubble only began a few weeks ago.

More than 380,000 residents are still displaced and the security situation in the Nineveh region remains precarious, with pockets of militants are still active in areas along the border with Syria.

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