Despite oil wealth, poverty fuels despair in south Iraq – Roya News English

  • Date: 05-Nov-2021
  • Source: Roya News
  • Sector:Oil & Gas
  • Country:Gulf
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Despite oil wealth, poverty fuels despair in south Iraq – Roya News English

In Iraq's southern province of Basra, the oil flows freely but little of the wealth trickles down to the people, and many struggle to make ends meet.

Sajad, 17, who lives in Basra city, says he "has no future" and no present. Like other young people, he says he just survives, a living emblem of the city's maladies.

Basra province produces about 70 percent of crude oil in Iraq, itself the second biggest exporter in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.