MOSUL, Iraq — “It’s better than it was,” a shoe salesman in a small outdoor market on the outskirts of east Mosul said, carefully choosing his words. Ashraf Shahab’s stand is full of shoes from Turkey and Syria, but there are hardly any customers. Yet things are better than during the occupation by the Islamic State (IS), or Daesh, as it is called locally.

“Then, there were hardly any goods, as the roads to Mosul were closed,” Shahab said. “The situation was terrible, and people had to sell even their clothes to be able to eat.”

His market is situated in the Gogjali neighborhood, the first to be liberated from IS in October 2016. It became the hub for all trade, with most of the products initially coming in from the neighboring Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The retail market has moved to Gogjali, and shops opened, some of them even lining the pavement with luxury items like air conditioners, washing machines and bicycles. Shahab cannot afford a trade like that; he is happy some of the bigger businessmen have come forward to help with stock. “They allow us to pay them only after we have sold the products.”

Shahab’s clients shop mostly in the late afternoon. Many returned from the camps they fled to, and others escaped from the other side of the river, where the battle still rages. And as the government has started paying the first few of its civil servants their salaries again, his modestly priced shoes do get sold.