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More funds needed for relief efforts to aid Iraqis fleeing Fallujah fight

Xinhua, June 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

More funds are needed for relief efforts to help Iraqi people fleeing the fighting in Fallujah as the United Nations and its partners are working around the clock to provide humanitarian assistance to them, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, told reporters here Thursday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 65 million U.S. dollars are required to provide assistance in Fallujah, Haq said at a daily news briefing here, adding that this week, 15 million U.S. dollars had been approved by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and the United States announced a contribution of 20 million dollars to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

The humanitarian appeal for 2016 requested 861 million U.S. dollars, but it is only funded at 36 percent, or 309 million dollars, he said.

Since May 22, the United Nations and partners have delivered more than 3,400 tents. Some 21,000 packages of basic household items have been distributed, as have 8,800 cooking stoves.

Some 34,000 packages of ready-to-eat food, bottled water and hygiene supplies, sufficient to aid people for up to five days, have been distributed to people on the move, as they arrive to safe territory, Haq said.

"Infrastructure works to expand clean water and sanitation facilities are ongoing in all sites, with dozens of latrines, showers, water tanks, and water treatment and purification units being installed. Water trucking is also ongoing in all areas," he said.

"The number of displaced people and the pace of their arrival have stretched humanitarian capacities," he added.

Fallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly 69 kilometers west of the capital Baghdad on the Euphrates.

Thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire in and around Fallujah as Iraqi government forces and allied militias are trying to recapture the city.

Iraqi government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar from Islamic State militants, who attempted to advance toward Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province.

Iraq is currently witnessing a wave of violence since the Islamic State controlled parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.

The Iraqi government has established a number of camps for the 60,000 people already displaced in Anbar, and in anticipation of movement from the Fallujah area. The United Nations warned that these facilities are overstretched, with little capacity to absorb more people. Enditem