Pandemic pushes some Iraqis, broken by conflict, into poverty

Iraqi muslims perform Ramadan prayers at a store, after the Iraqi government ordered all mosques to stay closed, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Baghdad's Adhamiya district, Iraq April 26, 2020. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When shops and homes shutter at curfew, some Iraqis in this Baghdad district say it reminds them of past traumas that destroyed lives and livelihoods: sectarian death squads, foreign invasion, and the ruin wrought by international sanctions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the source of their current suffering. In interviews with Reuters, half a dozen people in the Adhamiya neighbourhood said it has driven their families into the worst poverty they can remember.