Sadeq Ahmed owned a bakery in the Rawanduz district of Erbil province. His bakery was a staple of the district, but on Friday he shut the doors for the last time, unable to make ends meet anymore. His three staff lost their jobs.
“We invested nearly $9000 in the shop, but could not earn enough money to buy flour and other items, let alone pay the staff. People are in a desperate state. It is not about being unable to afford to buy bread,” Ahmed told Rudaw on Friday.
Despite being a picturesque tourist destination, life is difficult in Rawanduz.
Few tourist customers, high rent, and government failure to pay its civil servants have hit this community hard.
Kurdistan Region has been suffering from a financial crisis caused by several factors, mainly the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), the partial suspension of the Region’s federal budget and a halt to the exportation of the Kurdish oil to the international markets.
From every shop in Rawanduz, you can see a shuttered storefront. Of 100 shops in the bazaar, 28 have been closed in the last month. More businesses are expected to go bankrupt.
“The lack of business has reached its peak. I had rented a shop near that mosque but later closed up. The rent was 80,000 IQD. I spent a total of 400,000 IQD in ten months but could not earn 80,000 IQD [a month],” Taib Akoyi, another vendor, told Rudaw.
Mohammed Abdulrahman, a vendor, attributed the lack of business in Rawanduz to the fact that most tourists pass by the bazaar without stopping by, adding that the Kurdistan Regional Government’s failure to pay its civil servants for more than three months has exacerbated the matter.
Vendor Zendin Bakirm reminisced about the situation a few years ago.
“The situation was much better a couple of years ago. We used to bring in cargo with vehicles carrying two tons of goods, but now we use pick-up trucks to bring one ton of goods from Erbil. It takes us ten days to sell them. In the past, we sold four tons in a couple of days,” he recalled.
The crisis has also triggered displacement. According to data from Rawanduz mayor’s office, over 30 families have left the district in the last six months.
Local authorities vow to create more job opportunities.
“We will strive to increase job opportunities in the downtown in the future. This can be achieved through restoring the cultural and historical aspects of Rawanduz. This could bring more job opportunities, shoppers, and tourists,” Ahmed Qadir, mayor of Rawanduz, said.
