Mosul protesters demand ouster of Iraqi governor after tragic drownings
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Residents of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul took to the streets on Friday and demanded the ouster of the provincial governor, long accused by locals of corrupt dealings within his administration. This came one day after an overcapacity ferry capsized and flipped over onto a crowd of passengers, hurling them into the Tigris river and killing over 90 of them.
The shuttle sank as it was transferring people to a man-made island resort on the Tigris River in what has been described as the worst single disaster to strike the embattled city of Mosul since it was retaken from the Islamic State in 2017.
Mosul’s residents, who have lived through the sluggish recovery from the destruction wreaked by the Islamic State and the battle against them that included mass aerial bombardment of large parts of the city, were dismissive of the official statements that came after the accident, some of which demanded that companies and others deemed criminally negligent in the accident be brought to justice.
Earlier in the day, protesters forced Nineveh Governor Nawfal al-Aakub and later Iraqi President Barham Salih to both leave the area by hurling stones at their convoys as they made public appearances following the tragedy.
As his car sped off from the crowd, Governor Aakub's vehicle reportedly struck and injured two people who were then rushed to the hospital. This, along with a snapshot of him smiling on TV standing aside Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi while addressing the media during a visit to some of the victims of the incident, appears to be further stoking outrage, both for what social media users called “insensitivity” along with the existing widespread allegations of corruption.
Despite reconstruction efforts carried out so far under Aakub’s administration, the poor quality of material and workmanship has been decried by many. A week before the ferry accident, one of Mosul’s bridges partially collapsed during a flood, only one month after its inauguration.
To assess the situation, the Nineveh Provincial Council (NPC) held an extraordinary session early Friday, during which they ruled to dismiss the provincial health director Falah Taii, under whom the region’s dilapidated infrastructure has reportedly remained ill-equipped to handle the rescue of civilians in such incidents.
The NPC also referred Aakub for an investigation into the causes of the drownings, as well as any violations his guards may have committed against protesters.
“Our demand is the governor’s resignation,” one protester said Friday afternoon.
“All officials must be dismissed.” another joined. “All of them must leave; we do not want them.”
One woman, in tears, expressed her grievances with the situation in the city, continually struck by tragedies,” said one woman, as tweeted by Rasha Alaqeedi, an editor for the Irfaa Sawtak website which aims to engage youth in public discourse. “We are protesting today for over 100 people who died because of corruption, destruction, greed.”
To comprehend how deep the heartbreak is for Mosul after #MosulFerrySinking, I'll translate this young woman's cries.
— Rasha Al Aqeedi (@RashaAlAqeedi) March 22, 2019
1- "We're protesting today because we can longer remain silent. We are protesting today for over 100 people who died because of corruption, destruction, greed" https://t.co/iZMvO3FrVI
“Is it not enough that Da’esh [ISIS] took all our dear ones?! Is it not enough!? Da’esh took all our people. Da’esh killed my father. Today, I lost more people. Yesterday 100. Children, women, martyrs. Why?!”
On Thursday, Prime Minister Abdu-Mahdi declared three days of mourning, later joined by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which also “directed all relevant agencies” to Mosul and is fully prepared to provide the necessary support to its hospitals to receive the victims, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement offering his condolences to the family of the victims.
Washington also extended its “deepest condolences to the families of the victims and hope for a speedy recovery of those injured,” an official statement read.
Late Friday, Abdul-Mahdi announced that to “address the situation in Nineveh Province” he had formed a “crisis cell,” which is made up of directors of Nineveh University, Nineveh operations command, and provincial police forces. The cell would be responsible for at least some executive functions, read a statement by the prime minister, which appeared to suggest that Governor Aakub may be in some way suspended but did not say so outright.
Following this, Nineveh Operations Command director Major General Najim al-Jubouri said during an interview with local media Alsumaria that 16 individuals suspected to have been involved in the incident had been arrested.
Editing by John J. Catherine