Shafaq News-Al-Anbar
Ramadi wasrecaptured in months. The compensation files, the empty lots, and theunanswered questions have lasted eleven years.
On May 17,2015, ISIS militants seized Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western al-Anbarprovince, in a matter of hours. Using waves of suicide car bombs, theyoverwhelmed government forces, who abandoned the city along with their weaponsand vehicles. Within days, an estimated 85,000 people had fled, and withinmonths, the number of displaced from Ramadi and surrounding areas had surpassed180,000, according to the UN refugee agency.
By the timeIraqi forces retook the city in late 2015 and early 2016, more than 3,000buildings and nearly 400 roads and bridges had been damaged or destroyed. Localofficials estimated that 80 percent of Ramadi had been reduced to rubble, withall water, electricity, sewage, and other infrastructure suffering some degreeof damage. The Iraqi prime minister's office estimated that 90 percent of thecity was contaminated with explosives when ISIS was finally defeated.
Eleven yearslater, much of the physical city has been rebuilt. Roads have been repaved,sewage systems repaired, and public parks laid out. Up to 80 percent ofRamadi's displaced population has returned home. But the anniversary, markedthis week across al-Anbar, has brought into focus what reconstructionstatistics do not capture: the unresolved claims of tens of thousands offamilies.
Youssefal-Nada, a civil activist from al-Anbar, told Shafaq News that the province isa living record of patience, history, and dignity. “The people heredemonstrated an unbreakable will each time their cities were broken, drawing resiliencefrom the cohesion of tribal structures and a stubborn attachment to education,work, and the idea of return.”
"Thecollective memory of al-Anbar's people will remain alive no matter how muchtime passes," al-Nada said, "and hope does not die in anycircumstance."
He argued thatinvesting in people, not only infrastructure, is the true path to rebuildingthe province, and that stability cannot be complete without the restoration ofservices, employment opportunities, and meaningful support for young peopleacross every city in Anbar.
Sheikh SamirAbu Omar framed the issue of war compensation as a moral and humanitarianobligation that cannot be deferred. Thousands of families lost their homes,property, and livelihoods during the years of ISIS occupation and the militarycampaigns that followed. Many, he said, are still waiting.
"Compensationis an official acknowledgment of people's suffering and sacrifices, and amessage that the state stands with its citizens in times of crisis." Hecalled for simplifying the administrative procedures that continue to blockeligible families from accessing their rights, and for field campaigns toreview compensation files with fairness and transparency.
Journalist andmedia figure Mahdi al-Jumaili told Shafaq News that rebuilding Ramadi and theother cities of al-Anbar remains a national priority no less urgent thansecurity —because, he said, real stability begins with restoring life tocities, infrastructure, and basic services.
The destructionleft by ISIS, al-Jumaili argued, cannot be overcome without comprehensiveprograms to repair homes, schools, hospitals, and roads. Reconstruction, headded, is not only physical: it also means rebuilding the social fabric andreviving the cultural and civic life that give a city its identity.
He called forthe involvement of the private sector and international organizations inreconstruction projects to ensure higher quality and faster delivery, warningthat delays in rehabilitation deepen the divide between what the governmentpromises and what residents actually experience.
Officials inBaghdad have estimated that rebuilding Iraq after ISIS will require between $80and $100 billion. In al-Anbar, more than 100 service projects and 56 investmentinitiatives are reportedly underway, but residents in Ramadi have continued tocall for a functioning hospital, repairs to the city's dam, and sustainedinvestment in the neighborhoods that remain incomplete.
Eleven yearsafter the fall, Ramadi stands repaved, repopulated, and outwardly recovered. The memory of what happened here, and the file of what is still owed, remainopen.