Iraq News Now

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament has fired Nineveh’s governor, Nawfal Hamadi, days after some 100 people died when a ferry capsized in Mosul. The ousted provincial official was already facing accusations of corruption and was the focal point of the city’s rage after the deadly accident on Thursday. 

Hamadi and his two deputies were removed on “charges of negligence and corruption,” Viyan Sabri, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the legislature, told Rudaw after the majority of lawmakers voted in favour of sacking the governor. 

The parliamentary vote came in response to a request from Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi who asked that the provincial leaders be removed from their positions because of “clear negligence” and evidence of “wasting public money.”

The prime minister is currently in Cairo on his first foreign trip abroad. 

Parliament is also expected to consider a petition from lawmakers of Nineveh province asking that the victims of the ferry disaster be declared martyrs and their families provided with compensation. 

Sabri said that Mosul's situation is “unique as its people are suffering from the implications of the ISIS war as many have still not been able to return home.”