Red Cross reaches tens of thousands clinging to life amid Iraq’s worst devastation

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Tens of thousands of people stranded by fighting in western Ramadi have been clinging to life in Iraq’s largest Anbar province, according to Red Cross officials, who said the destruction is the worst they have seen from the war with the Islamic State (ISIS) group.

The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a convoy of aid to the area for the first time last week, ICRC officials said, some marveling at how some 35,000 people driven from their homes have survived without food, water and shelter in isolated flat plains where they fled from the fighting.

"The destruction is more than anything we've seen yet anywhere in Iraq and ICRC staff constantly visit many places in Nineveh, Salahuddin, Kirkuk, Diyala, Anbar and other areas which witness heavy fighting,” explained Ralph El Hage, the ICRC spokesperson in Iraq.

“They are isolated from any source of clean water, food, or healthcare. If someone gets sick, the closest hospital is in Khaldiyah. If they are lucky to find someone to take them there, the trips takes hours, when in times of emergencies, every second counts,” he told Rudaw in an interview on Sunday.

El Hage explained that ICRC staff reached the area for the first time this month, delivering “emergency relief” to 1,200 families. “Each family has an average of 10 members, a total of 12,000 people all in all," he added.

“Each family received 35 kilograms of rice, canned food, various kinds of beans, cooking oil, cooking sets, cooking stove, plates, cups, forks, basically, everything they need to cook the food and eat it afterwards. Moreover, hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, cleaning detergents were distributed. Also, each family received blankets and jerry cans," he added.

It was the first help they had received, and El Hage said that reaching the area was dangerous and not easy, due to hazards from fighting and bombs. He said the ICRC convoy and personnel had traveled in regular vehicles, not armored trucks “from our office in Baghdad all the way to the location.”

He added that, “The process (required) coordination with authorities on the ground. For safety reasons, all our movements are notified to the concerned authorities. Additionally, as a matter of neutrality and safety, we do not accept any escort with our vehicles. Our protection is our reputation as a neutral humanitarian organization and ability to keep promises to the people who need our urgent assistance.”

ISIS seized the city of Ramadi on May 15 last year, sending Iraqi forces racing out of the city in a major loss, despite the support of US-led airstrikes targeting the extremists.

The Iraqi army backed by US aircraft launched a major offensive to retake this Sunni city from ISIS seven months after it fell to the radical group and in late December the long embattled city, 90 kilometers west of Baghdad, was reclaimed from the extremists.

After the city was overrun by ISIS and abandoned by Iraqi forces, hundreds of thousands of civilians from the city and its outskirts fled for their lives, some to Baghdad and many to the Kurdistan region. According to estimates, the total number of Anbar refugees in the Kurdistan region has exceeded 1.7 million.

“Thousands of people are suffering in the area (west of Ramadi) from the lack of water, food and difficult access to medical services," Katrina Ritz, head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq, said in a statement last week. She marveled at how the people had “managed to survive."

Danny Merhi, another ICRC official in Baghdad, said that the Red Cross staff also had visited downtown Ramadi and areas nearby to assess humanitarian needs, such as access to food and clean water.

He described “a trail of destruction in the city, including infrastructure,” and unexploded munitions. There was some damage to the ICRC office in Ramadi as well, he said.

El Hage said that ICRC is next trying to reach another western Ramadi suburb.

"We are heading back to another suburb 60 kilometers west of Ramadi to a camp called Wafa. People in this camp have just fled the fighting in Hit and its surroundings and are living in an area basically cut off from everything.”

He estimated that "around 1,200 families are currently there and we will distribute our standard emergency parcel.”

"We have been focusing our humanitarian response on the most vulnerable -- in other words, people who have just been displaced from an area witnessing fighting," he explained.

Red Cross reaches tens of thousands clinging to life amid Iraq’s worst devastation

Turkish tycoon apologizes after 'racial' remarks about Kurds

Over 650 foreign nationals arrested entering Kirkuk illegally this year: police

Kurdish artist selected to participate in ‘Olympics for Art’

Related Articles

Turkish tycoon apologizes after 'racial' remarks about Kurds

Over 650 foreign nationals arrested entering Kirkuk illegally this year: police

Kurdish artist selected to participate in ‘Olympics for Art’