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Parliamentary Committee: $240 Bn Have Been Smuggled Outside Iraq since 2003

Iraqi men hold a banner during an anti-corruption demonstration at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad. (File photo: Reuters)
Iraqi men hold a banner during an anti-corruption demonstration at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad. (File photo: Reuters)
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Parliamentary Committee: $240 Bn Have Been Smuggled Outside Iraq since 2003

Iraqi men hold a banner during an anti-corruption demonstration at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad. (File photo: Reuters)
Iraqi men hold a banner during an anti-corruption demonstration at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad. (File photo: Reuters)

Iraq’s parliamentary integrity committee announced that about $240 billion have been smuggled outside the country since 2003.

Committee member Taha al-Difai indicated that the government formed an anti-corruption committee which came under political pressure, affecting its performance.

Difai told the state-owned Iraqi News Agency on Monday that he hopes the committee will be able to continue its work and investigate major cases such as corruption in ministries.

“Around IQD1,000 trillion ($685 billion) have been disbursed since 2003,” he said, adding that they include the budgets of the operational and investment ministries.

Difai pointed out that this amount was “wasted in contracting and rampant corruption,” noting that the committee concluded that the majority of projects in Baghdad or the provinces were assigned to incompetent companies.

The works were not completed and money was used for small projects rather than establishing strategic projects as main roads and highways, he indicated.

“The amount [$240 billion] was smuggled in the form of fake receipts and commissions were paid to officials,” pointed out Difai.

Earlier, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi pledged that 2021 will be the year of uncovering major truths about corruption.

Kadhimi said the government is determined to fight corruption this year, despite the pressures from various figures and parties against the measures taken by the special anti-corruption committee.

Meanwhile, Masoud Haidar, an advisor to Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, accused Shiite parties of stealing more than $1 trillion from Iraq.

Haidar indicated that Shiite parties do not have any plans to serve Iraq and are not capable of governing the state.

Over the past years, Baghdad and Erbil have been locked in a series of disputes, most recently the oil crisis in exchange for the salaries of the region's state employees, which remains unsolved since 2015.

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UN: Situation in West Darfur ‘Catastrophic’

A displaced Sudanese woman sits next to children in a town in northern Darfur (Reuters) 
A displaced Sudanese woman sits next to children in a town in northern Darfur (Reuters) 
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UN: Situation in West Darfur ‘Catastrophic’

A displaced Sudanese woman sits next to children in a town in northern Darfur (Reuters) 
A displaced Sudanese woman sits next to children in a town in northern Darfur (Reuters) 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan (OCHA) said on Sunday there is a “massive” need for humanitarian assistance in North Darfur, adding that situation in the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps is catastrophic.

“Civilians are trapped. Aid cannot reach those who need it most,” the office said on its X account, adding that displaced people in the Tawila camp are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, Salwa Abdullah, a Darfur resident, told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that she buried her five children in the Darfur desert, with no sign to locate their graves if she ever came back to visit them.

“How can I survive without them,” she said.

Salwa dug their graves with the help of her father, during their journey from al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, to the relatively safe town of Tawila.

Speaking on the phone while crying, she said, “I tried to get them to a safe area, away from shells and bullets. I didn’t imagine they will die of thirst and then buried in a vast desert with no sign to mark their graves, only small sand hills that will disappear from wind and rain.”

Salwa’s oldest child was 13. She said she watched her five children struggle to death one by one, after they spent several days on the road to Tawila, located some 65 kilometers from al-Fasher, the last major city controlled by the Sudanese Army in the Darfur region, which has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces for the past year.

“In just two days I lost two daughters and three sons, and shortly before, I lost my husband. I still ignore if he is alive or dead. Even if I find him how can I tell him that his five children are dead,” said Salwa, who is in her forties.

“I cried a lot hoping my tears will wake them up from their coma. I can't describe my feelings back then. I wished I was dead instead.”

Salaw, who is pregnant, said the family left al-Fasher on foot carrying water bottles. “But due to high temperatures during the daytime hours, the water ran out on the third day,” she explained.

The grieved mother has now reached the Tawila town to join thousands of other families that were displaced from al-Fasher due to fighting between the Army and the RSF.

“Many families lost their children on their journey to Tawila, currently controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdul Wahid al Nur,” said Adam Rijal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees.

“The displaced are living in dire humanitarian conditions and need basic necessities such as food, drinking water and shelter,” he said.