JAKARTA - Students and staff at Ninevah Mosul University, who were badly damaged during fighting between Iraqi and ISIS Government forces in 2017, hosted a fast-opening banquet on the banks of the Tigris River on Tuesday.
The institution, which was founded in 2014, close to Mosul University, has been revived in recent years and its doors are reopened to the public.
"It was a beautiful breaking of fast for those fasting - in a warm and pleasant atmosphere, held by students and staff," a student at the university told The National News as reported April 11.
"After what we have gone through, we hope peace and stability will continue," said the student who asked not to be named, continued.
During Ramadan, Muslims fast a strict daily fast from dawn to sunset.
Following the takeover by ISIS, most students and staff at universities were forced to leave the city. The university's head office managed to establish a temporary place to continue its education program in the City of Duhok, Iraq-Kurdistan.
It is known that Mosul University is Iraq's second largest higher education institution, after Baghdad University, with 24 colleges, 40,000 students and 11,000 faculty members before the ISIS invasion, the United Nations said.
The number of students at the university now exceeds the pre-ISIS occupation registration rate by more than 40 percent.
Efforts to rebuild Mosul and its historic monument are backed by international donors with the Iraqi government, residents and officials from the city.
Last year, the university's Central Library opened to students, eight years after ISIS destroyed it.
Founded in 1921, it was one of the richest libraries in Iraq, the second after the Central Library in Baghdad.
When ISIS took over the city in 2014, the university library was bombarded by missiles and badly damaged. It is estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 books and ancient manuscripts were destroyed. The valuable archive recognized by UNESCO was also damaged.
Also last year, Mosul's biggest theater opened to the public five years after being set on fire by ISIS. The theater inside the campus of Mosul University, next to a busy center of students and central library, is the largest hall in Governor Badminton with a capacity of around 1,500.
ISIS fighters were expelled by government forces with the help of an international coalition in 2017. They controlled about a third of Iraq and Syria from mid-2040 until they were ousted by the coalition.
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