West Mosul, where Al-Bursa lies, was left in ruins-but its entrepreneurial residents have worked hard to revive it. But those golden days came to a screeching halt in 2014, when the Islamic State (IS) group began a brutal reign over Mosul that ended in 2017 after months of fierce fighting. “The market raked in around 12 to $13 million every month,” said economist Mohammad Naef, a native of Mosul. Thirty years ago, Mosul opened a bulk market known as “Al-Bursa,” whose shops sold food, homeware and other goods directly to consumers as well as to smaller shops. The northern city was a commercial hub for centuries, strategically located along transport routes linking Baghdad to the south, Syria to the west, Turkey further north and Iran in the east. MOSUL: Mountains of kitchen supplies, back-to-back butchers: the historic wholesale market in Iraq’s Mosul is battling the odds-from extremists to epidemic-to revive the city’s reputation as a trading hub. MOSUL: An Iraqi salesman sits at a shop at the “Al-Bursa” wholesale market in the northern city of Mosul.
0 kommentar(er)
