When shops and homes shutter at curfew, some Iraqis in this Baghdad district say it reminds them of past traumas that destroyed lives and livelihoods: sectarian death squads, foreign invasion, and the ruin wrought by international sanctions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The COVID-19 pandemic is the source of their current \nsuffering. In interviews with Reuters, half a dozen people in the \nAdhamiya neighbourhood said it has driven their families into the worst \npoverty they can remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor two years I squatted at a friend\u2019s to save rent and sent all my \nearnings – maybe $350 a month – to my sick wife and children in Turkey,\u201d\n said Abdul Wahhab Qassim, a 46-year-old day labourer. \u201cSince the \ncoronavirus lockdown there\u2019s no work. I can offer my family nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qassim says he and a growing number of neighbours who do casual \nlabour or run small stores have watched their modest incomes evaporate. \nThey collect evening meals donated by a family at the local mosque \nduring the holy month of Ramadan, often accepting this charity for the \nfirst time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt took less than two months of curfew for many to lose work,\u201d Qassim said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iraq has so far avoided a catastrophic spread of the new coronavirus,\n recording some 2,200 cases and less than 100 deaths, according to the \nhealth ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as in many countries, the measures required, including a \nnationwide curfew in place since March, have put stores out of business \nand left breadwinners idling at home, hitting vulnerable sections of the\n population hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesman for Iraq\u2019s planning ministry, Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, \nsaid 20 percent of the population currently lives in poverty and that is\n expected to rise to nearly 30 percent this year because of people put \nout of work by the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government last month announced a $25 monthly stipend for \nhouseholds struggling for income without state wages. Hindawi said 13 \nmillion people, almost a third of Iraqis, applied for the aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plummeting prices for oil, which accounts for almost all Iraq\u2019s \nrevenue, are already squeezing the economy, forcing the government to \nmull cuts to its vast public sector payroll. The price of oil has fallen\n more than 55% since the year began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LOCAL DEBT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iraq faces the same dilemma as much of the world – whether to ease \nrestrictions to help economic activity, or maintain a lockdown to avoid \nthe virus\u2019s spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities recently lifted the curfew during the daytime but \nannounced new fines for breaking it at night. The World Health \nOrganization says Iraq should maintain a lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get their free evening meals, Qassim and his neighbours say they \nskirt the curfew. With the mosque closed, they gather to pray, shake \nhands and break the Ramadan fast at a shopfront each night. Men eat from\n large plastic trays. Women collect polystyrene boxes of rice and \nchicken to take home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ikhlas Majeed, who cooks the food in her small kitchen, said there are more families in need than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese people have no state income. They earn what they can make in a\n day running stores or doing labouring. Because of past conflict there \nare many households without men who have no income,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israa Khalil, whose two brothers were killed by militias in 2006 and \nwhose husband died of a throat infection several years ago, supported \nher two children with money from a state fund paid to her mother. But \nher mother died in March and that compensation is no longer paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a widow, I can\u2019t go out looking for jobs,\u201d she said. She said she\n now owes money to local stores including the grocer, who said he makes a\n quarter of what he did before coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hindawi said the planning ministry was undertaking a study to measure\n the number of Iraqis who had lost work or fallen into poverty. A \ngovernment spokesman could not be reached for further comment on the \neconomic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NO SITTING GOVERNMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iraq is facing the economic and health challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic without a sitting government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mass protests by mostly young, unemployed Iraqis against what they \nsay is a corrupt ruling elite forced Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to \nresign last year. He remains as head of a caretaker government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Iraq\u2019s third in three \nmonths, is struggling to form a cabinet that rival parties will accept \nas a deadline looms this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without a new government, Iraq\u2019s budget, based on oil prices of \nnearly three times their current value, cannot be revised. The World \nBank this week projected Iraq\u2019s economy will contract 9.7 percent this \nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abdul Mahdi said in a statement last month that all countries faced a\n crisis from the pandemic and that it was important for Iraq to reduce \nits oil income dependency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When shops and homes shutter at curfew, some Iraqis in this Baghdad district say it reminds them of past traumas that destroyed lives and livelihoods: sectarian death squads, foreign invasion, and the ruin wrought by international sanctions. The COVID-19 pandemic is the source of their current suffering. In interviews with Reuters, half a dozen people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,4,7],"tags":[1093,1069,1079,1149,188,1150,639,381],"yoast_head":"\n