Fighting in Iraq Has Forced 500,000 Civilians to Leave Home

Fighting between the army and rebels have made so far this year nearly half a million displaced civilians in Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Only in the Al Anbar province, northwest of the country, violence has forced more than 50,000 families to leave their home but, according to Adrian Edwards, UNHCR spokesperson, “the number could be higher.”

Specified Edwards last Friday to a group of journalists in Geneva, “Although the Iraqi authorities had suspended the counting of displaced for security “, it was estimated that, in May 2014, there were about 480,000.

“The lucky ones staying with friends and family but others have to live in tents, schools or buildings half-built,” says the report. Only in the province of Al Anbar, add text, ” a third of the displaced live in schools.”

“Our team in the area reported that the displaced are struggling to overcome the situation of despair that has already spread throughout the country,” says Edwards. In Al Anbar and Salah al- Din (center) the majority of citizens who have had to flee their homes, followed by Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk (north) and finally the capital city, Baghdad is concentrated.

In this situation of violence inaccessibility to drinking water is added after the deliberate attack on a dam in the district of Abu Ghraib, Al Anbar, causing flooding in the area and forced more than 72,000 Iraqis flee their homes. The floods swept through the water treatment plants and, although local authorities have provided 28 trucks a day with potable water, cover only 50 % of requirements, according to UNHCR.

The situation in the country is becoming more delicate. Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for humanitarian aid from the European Union (EU), said during an interview in April to the situation in Iraq as the next humanitarian crisis. The violence in Al Anbar rebounded in December 2013, and quickly spread to Fallujah and 350,000 inhabitants rebel stronghold, where the recent bombing of the city by the army has caused new displacements and damaged the hospital and water plant Local.

At least 799 people have died in violence during the month of May, one of the bloodiest since the spiral of sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007.

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Posted by Maleeha Tareen on Jun 10 2014. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.