Decades of war have resulted in a high demand for prosthetics – and patients are anxious to visit clinics as they finally reopen First published by the Guardian Concentration is etched on Hussein’s face as he walks along a scuffed yellow line painted on the floor of the clinic’s rehabilitation room. He’s getting a feel […]
Read moreFor migrants left jobless by lockdown, aid scheme offers glimmer of hope
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kanaveni Thirupathi, 28, arrived in Erbil from India just six months ago and quickly found work as a cleaner at a local college. Thousands like him have migrated to the oil states of the Gulf, drawn by the promise of consistent and better paid work. For Kanaveni, neither promise was fulfilled. […]
Read moreHashd al-Shaabi: A house divided
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A schism is deepening within the ranks of Iraq’s paramilitia groups, between those loyal to the country’s top Shiite religious authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and those tied to Iran. First published by Rudaw The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi, was created in 2014 when Sistani […]
Read moreAfghanistan: The Missing Peace
First published by Rudaw Part I: ‘Welcome to Kabul’ It wasn’t an encouraging start. Stepping off the airport shuttle bus at Hamid Karzai International, bleary eyed after a long layover in Dubai’s Terminal 2, my first impression of the Afghan capital Kabul is of a towering column of black smoke rising from the expat […]
Read moreIs ISIS winning hearts and minds in Iraq’s Makhmour?
MAKHMOUR, Kurdistan Region – Months of heavy rain have turned the normally arid plains of Qarachogh a verdant green. In this hotly disputed territory of northern Iraq, the increasingly brazen presence of bearded gunmen in the hills suggests the extremist threat once thought defeated is also growing back anew. An hour and a half’s drive […]
Read moreArchbishop of Erbil: Iraq’s Christians need to thrive, not just survive
Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their towns and villages across the Nineveh Plains and from the city of Mosul in the summer of 2014 when Islamic State (ISIS) militants launched a lightening campaign through the region. The jihadists gave Christian residents of their newly conquered territories three options: convert to Islam, pay a heavy […]
Read moreChristian IDPs sheltering above Erbil bazaar threatened with eviction
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Christian families left homeless by the war with Islamic State (ISIS) are being threatened with eviction from an apartment building in downtown Erbil where they have been sheltering rent-free since 2014. Families who spoke to Rudaw English say their homes were destroyed when ISIS militants swept across northern Iraq, forcing […]
Read moreDavos 2019: Was it all doom and gloom?
DAVOS, Switzerland — Humanity faces a raft of existential threats, from economic collapse to climate change, artificial intelligence to an age without antibiotics. Yet several world leaders — including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — chose to sit out this year’s World Economic Forum to focus on crises closer to home. […]
Read moreSyrian refugees in KRI want to return – but first need guarantees
KAWERGOSK, Kurdistan Region – Zuhur laughs brightly in the little paved yard in front of her breezeblock shelter in Kawergosk Refugee Camp, Erbil province. Although she is Arab by ethnicity, Zuhur insists with an ardent smile she has adopted her late-husband’s Kurdish identity. Originally published on Rudaw.net Dressed in a black hijab decorated with blue […]
Read moreAncient lost city of Mardaman slowly gives up its secrets
DUHOK, Kurdistan Region – Against the fine yellow dust coating the landscape, the brilliant white of a human skeleton juts conspicuously from the earth. Dropped into pits, apparently without ceremony more than 2,000 years ago, the bodies uncovered by archaeologists near the town of Bassetki, Duhok province, are just one of the mysteries slowly emerging […]
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