The report by the UN’s International Organization for Migration said that the new displacements took place between June 16 to Sept. 5. It said the new internally displaced persons (IDPs) come from the northern Iraqi provinces of Salahadin and Nineveh, where ISIS has been beaten back from towns and villages by Kurdish Peshmerga forces, the Iraqi Army and Coalition air strikes for the past several months.
“Displacement continues in Iraq as military operations are ongoing; more than 90,100 Iraqis have been recently displaced,” the report said, adding that the task of caring for the growing number of IDPs is becoming overwhelming.
“The humanitarian community is unable to provide sufficient shelters for the overwhelming numbers of displaced Iraqis, with more than 545,000 living in critical shelter arrangements,” the report said.
“These populations are particularly vulnerable, as they seek to find shelter in informal settlements, unfinished and abandoned buildings, religious buildings and schools,” it added.
Many of the IDPs have fled other parts of Iraq to seek shelter in the northern Kurdistan Region, which still remains largely peaceful, despite a war with ISIS on the autonomous enclave’s frontlines. Some 1.8 war refugees from Syria and IDPs from other parts of Iraq are sheltered in Kurdistan.
The UN report said that, among efforts to care for the needy, “Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) teams are working in critical shelter arrangements.” The teams are operating in Baghdad, Salah al-Din, Erbil and Anbar governorates, it added.
“In 2016, CCCM services have improved the living conditions for more than 1,500 displaced families (9,000 individuals),” it said.
As relief agencies struggle to care for the growing numbers of IDPs, there are fears of a greater humanitarian disaster as military preparations get underway for an anticipated offensive to free the city of Mosul, which has been the ISIS stronghold in Iraq since its capture in June 2014.
In an exclusive interview with Rudaw last month, Stephen O'Brien, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC), said that the humanitarian situation in Iraq is deteriorating, with some 10-12 million people at risk after the start of the Mosul offensive, which military officials say is anticipated this year.
“It’s very severe and it is unfortunately deteriorating and we are having to plan for the very sharp increase in humanitarian needs as the expectation of the recovery of Mosul is in train. So put that together, we have something in the order of 10-12 million people at risk and we have some millions in various parts who have humanitarian needs tonight and we can see that we are able to reach many of them but by no means all of them,” O’Brien said.
