While Pope Francis begins a visit to Iraq and Mosul on Friday, Olivier Poquillon, Dominican brother installed in Iraq since 2019, was the guest of Europe 1 on Friday morning.
Even if the city has been ravaged by the fighting against Daesh, he wants to emphasize the resilience of the inhabitants who are gradually returning to settle in this deeply damaged city.
INTERVIEW
Pope Francis begins Friday a visit to Iraq and Mosul, a city bruised by the violence of Daesh that Christians had to flee.
A historic visit hailed by Olivier Poquillon, Dominican brother, present in the country since September 2019. The city of Mosul was devastated by the fighting waged to finally dislodge in 2017 the jihadists who had made it their capital.
Despite the damage and the scars of the fighting which are still very visible, Olivier Poquillon prefers to focus on the rebirth of the city.
“After a year, we saw the streets be paved, the water and electricity networks come back. Just before the Covid, there was a small economic recovery in the old town, with families returning and children playing in the streets. Even in the ruins, we saw life come back, "he said on Friday morning on Europe 1, before adding:" the old town was almost razed to the ground. a field of ruins, but with a number of things emerging ".
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"Rediscovering the diversity of Mosul"
In addition to the reconstruction of the city, Olivier Poquillon is also marked by the resilience of the inhabitants: "What strikes me about the Iraqis is this desire to move on. When we talk to young people, especially high school students or students, we see that what interests them is to find this diversity in Mosul ".
Arrived in Mosul in the fall of 2019, Olivier Poquillon came to supervise the reconstruction of the Notre-Dame-de-l'Heure convent.
Three buildings are also concerned by a Unesco program.
"I expected to see Mosul more destroyed than it was. I was paradoxically happy to see that, in the middle of the heap of ruins, the convent where I had lived in 2003-2004 still had a roof. , even if it was very damaged by air strikes and fighting which were of very high intensity around ", he admits.
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A convent transformed into a court and a training center
Occupied by Daesh, the convent served as a court and a training center.
"There was rubble everywhere, bulletproof vests lying around and instruction manuals," Olivier Poquillon also remembers.
"Given the duration of the siege of the old town and the extent of the destruction, you can find military equipment and weapons, ammunition, documents, things like that. And then, unfortunately, in the old town, you can still find bodies which may be bodies of combatants or bodies of civilians which were trapped at the end of the fighting ".
Christians represent 2% of the Iraqi population.
In 2000, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq.
Twenty years later, it is estimated that this number has been divided by ten.
Olivier Pocquillon also spoke on the question of the security of the Pope.
In Italy in particular, his visit to Mosul, where there are still airstrikes, is debated.
"When he was criticized for his safety, the Pope replied 'I am over 80 years old, I gave my life to God, it is not at more than 80 years that I will take it back' ", recalled Olivier Pocquillon.