20 Sep 2020; MEMO: A senior Iraqi official announced on Friday that Iraq has decided to compensate 90,000 civilians harmed by the “liberation battles” in the Nineveh governorate, in the north of the country.
This came in a statement made by Mohammed Mahmoud, director of the sub-committee for compensating people affected by war operations in the Nineveh Governorate, to Anadolu Agency.
Mahmoud explained that: “It was decided to compensate 90,000 civilians in the Nineveh governorate, who suffered material and human losses during the battles that the security forces fought against Daesh in the region.”
He added: “So far, 9,000 civilians have received the compensation money, and about 50,000 requests for compensation have been approved.”
The Iraqi official did not reveal the amount of compensation awarded to those affected, but he expects that the actual number of war victims will exceed the recorded statistics.
In the summer of 2014, Daesh fighters took control of the Nineveh Governorate (the second largest governorate in Iraq), while the Iraqi forces managed, with the support of the International Coalition, to expel the terrorist organisation and liberate the cities of the north and west in 2017.
The infrastructure of the northern and western governorates was significantly damaged during three years of fighting, between the government forces and Daesh militias, who managed to control a third of the country in 2014.
In 2018, the Iraqi government estimated the cost of rebuilding the country at $88.2 billion over a period of ten years, according to a study conducted by Iraqi and international experts.
