Focus turns to rebuilding Raqqa
“The Coalition’s most committed nations came together to focus on how to address the most critical essential service requirements within Raqqa City,” according to a readout from the meeting.
The consortium will attract funding for reconstruction projects identified and prioritized by the local population, Brett McGurk, US special presidential envoy to the coalition, stated in July.
Once home to some 220,000 people, Raqqa now lies largely in ruins after months of an aggressive military campaign to oust ISIS from its self-declared capital.
People eager to return to the city are living in tents, waiting to go home and begin rebuilding. When the city was first declared liberated and residents returned for the first time in months, they were shocked by the scale of the destruction.
“I wasn’t expecting the destruction to be this bad. It’s unreal – there are no buildings left, no infrastructure, no signs of life whatsoever,” Raqqa native Fadila Hamad al-Khalil told AFP on returning to the city.
A woman cries after seeing her home in Raqqa on October 20. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP
Local aid workers noted a lack of international support for clearing and reconstruction efforts. “I am not getting the impression that there is a concerted effort to holistically reconstruct the city,” a humanitarian worker told Time magazine anonymously. “Part of it has been the lack of clarity around the role of the US government. You break it, you buy it.”
An estimated 1,800 civilians were killed during the battle for Raqqa, according to Airwars and the conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that over 80 percent of the city has been damaged or destroyed.
A general view of Raqqa on the day of its liberation - October 20. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP
Organizations leading the de-mining process estimate they will need six months to remove some 8,000 explosives, the media activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported.
Finding and removing bodies under the rubble, clearing explosives, restoring water and electricity services, and rebuilding homes, hospitals, and schools is the monumental task now facing the Raqqa Civil Council – a local body formed to administrate the city post-ISIS. It was set up by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the coalition-backed, Kurdish-led, multi-ethnic armed force that ousted ISIS from the city.
In the Mashlab neighbourhood in eastern Raqqa, one of the least damaged areas, the SDF said life is beginning to return. Mounds of rubble and garbage were being trucked out and locals joined in the cleanup efforts. An internal security force has been tasked with managing the security of the neighbourhood, the SDF stated on Tuesday.
The SDF declared Raqqa liberated on October 20, but the fight may not be over. Damascus has said that it will bring all Syrian lands back under its control.