Reconstruction of liberated areas .. Challenges in the face of Iraqis .. (expanded)





December 11, 2017
Baghdad - Agencies

WASHINGTON - The United States is committed to helping Iraq recover from three years of war against a militant organization, although President Donald Trump has cut the foreign aid budget, a senior official with a key humanitarian agency said on Tuesday.

"The agency will continue to provide basic humanitarian services and additional support to minority groups such as psychosocial support for those suffering from genocide, slavery and sexual violence," the agency quoted USAID adviser Thomas Stall as saying.

"The president's budget includes a 30 per cent reduction, but for Iraq we are in fact looking for additional funding, especially for the victims of a pre-emptive organization," he said in an interview at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Trump focused his foreign aid stance on the campaign, making it as a waste of taxpayer money, suggesting the White House cut its aid budget by a third.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced last Saturday a final victory over a militant organization after Iraqi forces killed the remnants of the group in the country after three years of occupation of Iraqi territory by terrorists.

The war has had devastating effects on former terrorist-held areas, while the United Nations said about 3.2 million people are still displaced. Abadi estimates that the cost of post-war reconstruction is $ 50 billion, a figure calculated before troops Mosul, causing serious damage to the largest city in northern Iraq.

According to Stall, the United States has provided $ 1.7 billion in humanitarian aid since it occupied northern Iraq in 2014, including a total of $ 265 million donated to the Stabilization Fund of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2016 and 2017 . The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) asked the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to focus on minority areas, Stal said, meeting with Christian and Yezidi leaders during a five-day visit to Iraq.

"He met two young men who were sold in the slave market by a terrorist organization and in 2014, an organization killed more than 3,000 Yazidi in what the United Nations called a genocide campaign. Selling others to sexual slavery or being forced to fight.

Stal said that Iraq is exempt from Trump's policy of cutting aid because of the "terrible plight" of the victims of the Dahedash organization, stressing that the long-term solution is that the Iraqi government will have to provide services to people in a more effective and efficient manner.

Stahl noted that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is working directly with Iraqi ministries to train staff and improve efficiency, with reforms at the top of the agenda. Corruption pervaded all levels of government in Iraq, which in 2016 ranked 166 out of 176 countries in the international corruption index.

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