IRAQ: International aid organisation say some 25,000 people have fled violence in northern Iraq over the last 2 or 3 days and that their numbers were rising despite air strikes breaking the "siege of Mount Sinjar"

Record ID: 274631

  • Title: IRAQ: International aid organisation say some 25,000 people have fled violence in northern Iraq over the last 2 or 3 days and that their numbers were rising despite air strikes breaking the "siege of Mount Sinjar"
  • Date: 15th August 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF REFUGEES ON BACK OF PICK UP TRUCK VARIOUS OF YAZIDI REFUGEES WALKING ACROSS PONTOON BRIDGE
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACKN16YL6QGCXLHAZHVPS4RY6S
  • Story Text: Aid organisations based in northern Iraq said on Thursday (August 14) that more and more people, many of them Yazidis, were fleeing violence from Islamic State fighters and arriving in Dohuk's Peskhabour crossing, on the border with Syrian border.
    One year ago Syrians fleeing violence were crossing the same border into Iraq. Today Iraqi minorities are going the other way.
    The International Relief and Development organisation said aid had been sent into Syria to help the Iraqis from Mount Sinjar seeking refuge there.
    The United States said on Thursday U.S. troops planning an evacuation of refugees further north were standing down as U.S. air strikes and supply drops had broken the "siege of Mount Sinjar," where thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority had taken refuge from the militants.

    "These aid supplies are presented from International Relief and Development [IRD] to the displaced people from Sinjar who crossed to Syrian territories. The aid, including drinking water and food, will be sent to certain areas inside Syria to be distributed to the displaced people. This is the first batch and there will another one within next coming days," the IRD's Ahmed Ismael said.
    The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said it was too early to declare the crisis over. Improved security had allowed large numbers of Yazidis to escape Mount Sinjar but "some thousands" still needed help.
    UNICEF representative in Iraq, Marzip Babille, said on Thursday he had seen more people crossing over in the last two days, not less.

    "Rising numbers of displaced people coming from Sinjar district and Sinjar mountains have been crossing this pontoon behind me over the last 48 hours. According to the government of Kurdistan region and United Nations more than 25 thousand over the last two, three days have sought refuge and asylum in Dohuk province just ahead. We are representing here the United Nations humanitarian agencies UNICEF, WHO, WFP AND UNHCR, and the collective efforts to support displacement from Sinjar and other parts in Nineveh plains," Babille said.
    The United Nations said it had raised the humanitarian emergency in Iraq to its highest level, putting it on a par with Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
    Working with local groups, U.N. agencies are providing food, water, shelter and medical care to those who have streamed into Kurdish-controlled territory since June when the Islamic State began its latest offensive.

    "Children are approximately 50 per cent of those 150-190 thousand people who have sought refuge over the last three, four weeks into this province. Their fate is linked to the ability to establish camps, multiply meals, distributing them equally and equitably, providing medical care, immunisation in protection for highly traumatized people," Babille added.
    Iraq has 1.2 million displaced people and 1.5 million needing help, the United Nations says.
    Disowned by al Qaeda as too radical after it took control of large parts of Syria, Islamic State capitalised on its Syrian territorial gains and sectarian tensions in Iraq to gain control of Falluja and Anbar's capital Ramadi early this year.
    Unlike Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, which set its sights on destroying the West, the Islamic State has territorial goals, aims to set up a caliphate and rages against the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 between Britain and France that split the Ottoman empire and carved borders across the Arab lands.
    Seizing the capital, Baghdad, would be difficult because of the presence of special forces and thousands of Shi'ite militias who have slowed down the Islamic State elsewhere.
    But a foothold just near the capital could make it easier for the IS to carry out suicide bombings, deepen sectarian tensions and destabilise Iraq.
    On Thursday, Islamic State militants massed near the town of Qara Tappa, 120 km (75 miles) north of Baghdad, security sources and a local official said, in an apparent bid to broaden their front with Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
    The movement around Qara Tappa suggests they are becoming more confident and seeking to grab more territory closer to the capital after stalling in that region.
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