ISIS News: Number of People Displaced From Mosul Exceeds 300,000
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 392,000 people have been displaced in the battle of Mosul. Many of them are returning home after coalition forces liberated the eastern part of the city, considered as the Islamic State's (ISIS) last major stronghold in Iraq.
Of the 392,000 evacuees, 60 percent of them or about 236,000 come from the eastern part of the city, according to International Organization for Migration. The good news is that 94,500 displaced Iraqis have returned to their homes, leaving a net refugee crisis of nearly 302,400 people.
Abdel Sattar Habou, a technical adviser to the governor of Nineveh, declared that 90 percent of those uprooted from their homes have returned to the eastern side of Mosul.
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"Basic services like electricity, drinking water and schools returned back to normal in the city," he told Iraqi News.
Despite this encouraging development, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that internally displaced persons continue to stream out of western Mosul which prompted the government to set up a new refugee camp south of the city where 2,283 families were transferred.
UNHCR also expressed concern for those who have returned to their homes but continue to suffer from food shortages. Some of them have reported not having potable water for up to 45 days. Residents in ISIS-controlled areas are unable to escape due to the risk of snipers and improvised explosive devices.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on the international community to step up relief efforts to the people of Mosul.
"These people have suffered enormously and they go on suffering," he said. "We don't have the necessary resources to support these people."
In October last year, security forces launched an offensive in Iraq's second largest city which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in 2014. Last February, the Iraqi Security Forces began an operation to retake the more densely populated western half of the city where heavy fighting continues.
