Hospital fires and electricity cuts have prompted angry protests, and many Iraqis see government corruption and mismanagement as the root of their suffering.
For many Iraqis, it has been a summer of tragedy. Fire tore through the COVID-19 isolation ward at a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriya, killing 60 people just months after a similar fire in a Baghdad hospital intensive care unit killed 82 COVID-19 patients.
The summer also saw temperatures rising above 120 degrees farenheit at a time when the government is failing to provide the electricity needed for people to cope. An election – Iraq’s sixth since the US-led invasion in 2003 – is imminent but, despite these failures sparking angry protests during the scorching-hot summer, many Iraqis do not see voting as a way to bring about change. Many even call for a boycott of the election.
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