In April we met Marwan Jum’aa Fakhir, a 15-year-old boy living in Baghdad, who told us about his daily life in a war-torn country. Six months on from the withdrawal of British troops, how has life changed? We tracked Marwan down again to find out

“Six months ago, we sensed some improvement here in Baghdad. People felt they could go out, and shops opened. But recently it has got worse again, with children kidnapped and held for ransom, explosions, and unbelievable traffic jams because of all the check points where people are stopped and searched for documents and weapons. It took me three hours yesterday to get to the nearby market to buy things for my shop.

This week, car bombs in Baghdad killed 147 people, the worst attack we have had in two years. People are afraid to go to work nowadays because of bombs targeted at government buildings and ministries. Last week, I heard that the ten-year old son of our neighbour, who is a well-off merchant, was kidnapped. I don’t know if it’s true or not, because families are usually threatened by kidnappers not to disclose the news until they pay the money.

TV channels are back to reporting bloodshed, people are back to the same old talk of death and fear, and electricity and water supplies are unreliable. But most importantly, there are few job opportunities, and families like mine find it difficult to meet our basic needs.

In April, I spoke about the death of my two older brothers, Saad and Ammar, which then caused my father to develop hypertension and lose his eyesight. My mother has also fallen sick now, and I have to run the family mini- market almost singlehandedly. I am tired of standing in the shop. I’d love to go to school full time, and become a pilot so that I could travel and see the world and its people. But I have had to reduce my study time to two hours a day, to run the shop and pay for my mother’s health expenses.

Most young people here in Iraq are poor, and have to work to support their families. But it’s by no means easy, especially when your family doesn’t have a business or a shop. My friend Karar strived to find a job and finally he ended up working as a street sweeper, and can’t attend school in the day any more. My friends and I feel depressed — we cannot find jobs, do not receive any support, and have very few places to go to do sports or hobbies.

I wish the Government could pay attention to the hundreds of thousands of young people who are in desperate need of support. I just hope my country can return to a state of security and stability. And for myself — I wish I could have support so I could pay more attention to my studies and lift myself and my family out of our situation.”

Interview by Catriona Nunn

unicef.org.uk

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