Humanitarian situation in Iraq continues to get worse, aid agencies warn

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the humanitarian situation in Iraq is deteriorating, with more than 8.6 million Iraqis now requiring assistance, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

"Of those who have been uprooted, nearly 2.8 million people have fled Anbar, Ninewa and Salah al-Din governorates," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

"Just over half a million people have fled insecurity in Anbar since 1 April 2015, following the Ramadi crisis," he said, adding that close to 1.6 million people are currently displaced in Anbar, Baghdad and Dahuk governorates.

"As new displacement continues, some people have also begun to return home," he said.

An estimated 400,000 people have returned to their home areas that have recently come under government control. However, in many areas, people have found their homes and communities destroyed by the conflict, which limits further returns.

Meanwhile, by Oct. 15, a month after a cholera outbreak was declared by the government, more than 1,600 cholera cases have been confirmed by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and World Health Organization (WHO), he said.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the WHO are working with the government to curb the outbreak, by supporting water, sanitation and hygiene activities. Additional funding is urgently needed to support the cholera response.

Cholera has spread across the Middle East country, with two deaths confirmed one month after the outbreak was first declared, according to the Ministry of Health and the WHO. The main causes for the current outbreak are broken water supply systems and the lack of sufficient chlorine in the country to provide clean water.

Insecurity and military operations continue, as Iraqi security forces and its allies continue military operations to retake areas from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Amidst unverified reports of an escalation of military operations, there have been reports of civilians seeking to leave Ramadi and Falluja, but access to safety for civilians in conflict areas remains a concern, according to the OCHA report.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq reported that at least 537 Iraqi civilians were killed and 925 civilians injured nationwide in September 2015. This includes civilian police and casualty figures from Anbar.

International assistance has alleviated the suffering of over 2 million Iraqis during the past year, but funding is still short of growing needs, said OCHA.

Overall global funding to Iraq in 2015 is 618 million U.S. dollars, of which 237 million dollars have been received outside the UN and its partners' joint appeals.

On June 4, the government of Iraq and the UN launched a revised and prioritized Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan seeking 498 million U.S. dollars, 41 percent of which has currently been received. Enditem