UN:

90,000 More Iraqis Displaced by War since June Alone

Rasa - Over 90,000 more Iraqis were displaced by war since mid-June, adding to the estimated 3.3 million who have fled their homes since 2014, when ISIL forces stormed across Iraq, a UN report said.

News ID: 423353

Date: 08 September 2016 - 20:47

RNA - The report by the UN’s International Organization for Migration said that the new displacements took place between June 16 to Sept. 5, Rudaw reported.

It said the new internally displaced persons (IDPs) come from the Northern Iraqi provinces of Salaheddin and Nineveh, where ISIL has been beaten back from towns and villages by Kurdish Peshmerga forces, the Iraqi Army and Coalition air strikes for the past several months.

“Displacement continues in Iraq as military operations are ongoing; more than 90,100 Iraqis have been recently displaced,” the report said, adding that the task of caring for the growing number of IDPs is becoming overwhelming.

“The humanitarian community is unable to provide sufficient shelters for the overwhelming numbers of displaced Iraqis, with more than 545,000 living in critical shelter arrangements,” the report said.

“These populations are particularly vulnerable, as they seek to find shelter in informal settlements, unfinished and abandoned buildings, religious buildings and schools,” it added.

Many of the IDPs have fled other parts of Iraq to seek shelter in the Northern Kurdistan Region, which still remains largely peaceful, despite a war with ISIL on the autonomous enclave’s frontlines. Some 1.8 war refugees from Syria and IDPs from other parts of Iraq are sheltered in Kurdistan.

The UN report said that, among efforts to care for the needy, “Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) teams are working in critical shelter arrangements.” The teams are operating in Baghdad, Salaheddin, Erbil and Anbar provinces, it added.

“In 2016, CCCM services have improved the living conditions for more than 1,500 displaced families (9,000 individuals),” it said.

As relief agencies struggle to care for the growing numbers of IDPs, there are fears of a greater humanitarian disaster as military preparations get underway for an anticipated offensive to free the city of Mosul, which has been the ISIL stronghold in Iraq since its capture in June 2014.

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