No electricity, no fuel for cooking

When Iraq invaded Kuwait over the first days of August 1990, its economy was still undergoing the effects of the long war with Iran: a reduction in GNP and national reserves, inflation and debt, the slowing down of growth in the industrial sector, and austerity budgets. What is known as «the first Gulf War» started on the 17th of January 1991 with one declared aim which was to free Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation. However, the destruction caused to the Iraqi civil and economic infrastructure by the multinational military coalition was estimated at 22 billion dollars, according to a UN report elaborated in 1991. This unjustified destruction combined with the sanctions system to paralyse Iraq’s economic activity and the daily life of its people for over a decade until the invasion of 2003.

Thus, in 1990 Iraq had 24 electric power stations which were systematically bombed in the early hours of the Gulf War in 1991. In later years, the cities, including the capital, suffered power cuts of between 10 and 16 hours a day, while in the countryside supplies were only for three to six hours. This meant that the treatment of sewage stopped and the cold chain for vaccines and foodstuffs was cut off. In a country with extreme summer temperatures, the heat became unbearable with no refrigeration for people nor food products.