Iraq protests .. a rich country riven by corruption

Spring flower

Iraq is witnessing a wave of mass protests in Baghdad and southern cities, which soon expanded, leaving dozens of dead and thousands wounded. Protesters are demanding reform, job creation and fighting corruption. It is not the first time Iraqis have taken to the streets to protest against the worsening economic situation.

These angry protests come after widespread corruption in official circles, weak economic situation, and underemployment for young people, causing high unemployment and increasing poverty.

In Basra, for example, the oil-rich city with the highest unemployment rates, the population suffers from access to basic services such as clean water, electricity, road services, etc., which led people to demonstrate for those services that were denied them in their wealthy country.

Iraq ranked 168 out of 180 countries in 2018 according to the report of the "Transparency International" This is a very dangerous indicator, and for 15 years in a row in the list of the most corrupt countries, where Iraq got 18 out of a hundred in the rank of "corrupt" countries after Corruption necrosis in the body of government institutions.

Unemployment rate
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Ministry of Planning, the unemployment rate for young people aged (15-24) years was about 20% in 2014, and reached 22.7% in 2016.

This is a clear indication that the poverty and unemployment rate is on the rise, with rising crime, suicide and drug rates, and joining armed groups.

The local human rights commission published a statement revealing the number of suicides since the beginning of this year until 14 September last year, reaching 274 cases in all governorates. These suicides are attributed by official bodies to social problems and lack of employment opportunities.

Ministry of Planning spokesman Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi told local media agencies that poverty rates reached 20 percent in 2018, and that the economic and security crisis negatively affected their decline, especially in 2014, after the Islamic State took control of one third of the area of ​​Iraq, where the poverty rate in both Governorates of Anbar, Salah al - Din and Nineveh by 41%.

Unresolved
From 2003 to this day, successive governments have failed to find a solution to the electricity crisis, despite spending billions of dollars to no avail.In the hot summer heat, the protests are burning.There is no demonstration in a city and there are signs calling for electricity.

Expenditures on the electricity sector amounted to more than forty billion dollars, and service has not improved but worsens day by day. Financial and administrative corruption plays an active role in delaying the reform of this vital sector which is important for the lives of citizens.

Corruption is not only about electricity, but also about reconstruction. Despite the huge budgets, all cities are weak in infrastructure, and the liberated areas of the Islamic State have difficulty in returning the cities destroyed by the war. Reconstruction is still very slow and limited.

For all these reasons and others, Iraqis have been demonstrating since the first of this month and until now, they may get the rights they have been demanding for years.