Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Iraqi volunteers search rubble to save varsity

993044
993044
minus
plus

MOSUL: Leaning on his crutch, Nizar picks through the rubble where the main building of Mosul University used to be, looking for whatever administrative documents can still be salvaged.


He is part of a unit of four volunteers working relentlessly to bring the university back to life three months after the damage it suffered during an Iraqi offensive against the IS group. The sprawling campus on the now retaken eastern side of Mosul was extensively destroyed because it had been used as a major headquarters by the fighters who took over the city in June 2014.


“This is all that’s left here,” said Nizar, a young man in his twenties, after clambering through a hole into a gutted room that used to be the office where student cards were printed.


Iraqi forces launched a massive offensive in October last year to retake the country’s second city from the group and in January fully secured the eastern side, where the university is located.


Nizar and his three friends are going room-to-room, one floor after another, turning every piece of debris to find records and permits that


could make resuming a university year easier.


“After the liberation, we came here and assessed the damage,” said Hamdoon, another young volunteer.


“Twelve buildings were completely levelled, the other buildings had damage ranging between five and 20 per cent, most of it caused by arson,” he said. “Also, some were booby-trapped and have now been cleared.”


Broken classroom chairs were piled up outside some of the buildings that are still standing and whose walls have been marked “safe” or “unsafe” with red spray paint.


“These buildings have a history and we too have stories in each one. Discovering the destruction was a heartbreak but I think it will return to be a leading Iraqi university,” Hamdoon said.


The University of Mosul, which was established in the sixties, was considered one of the best universities in the region and the country’s second learning centre behind Baghdad University.


“The university is the life blood of Mosul... today it needs support,” said Hamdoon.


The youngsters’ task is huge and they are getting limited help because the campus, which spreads along the Tigris, is still dangerously close to the areas where fighting is ongoing.


The fighters who control positions on the other side of the river that divides the city have regularly fired mortar rounds on the liberated east or launched attacks with weaponised drones. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon