BAGHDAD, Iraq - The UN’s Iraq chief on Saturday called for immediate action to forestall “a human rights tragedy” in the northern Iraqi town of Amerli, where inhabitants have been without food and water for two months, cut off from supplies by the Islamic State armies.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported a local doctor inside the Shiite Turkmen town as saying conditions were unspeakable, with children dying of dehydration and disease and his own family eating a meal every three days.
Nikolay Mladenov, the UN secretary general’s representative in Iraq, called for immediate action to avert a possible massacre in Amerli.
“The situation of the people in Amerli is desperate and demands immediate action to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens,” Mladenov said.
Most of the nearly 20,000 inhabitants of Amerli, 170 kilometers north of Baghdad, are Shiite Turkmen who are considered heretical and open to punishment under the militants’ religious beliefs.
According to local reports, the fighters of the Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS/ISIL) are slowly starving the inhabitants of Amerli. The town has been without electricity and water.
Mladenov’s statement expressed serious concern.
“The town is besieged by ISIL and reports confirm that people are surviving in desperate conditions. I urge the Iraqi Government to do all it can to relieve the siege and to ensure that the residents receive lifesaving humanitarian assistance or are evacuated in a dignified manner,” he said.
“Iraq’s allies and the international community should work with the authorities to prevent a human rights tragedy,” Mladenov added.
He also pointed out that the United Nations in Iraq will do all it can to support the Government and people of Iraq in alleviating “the unspeakable suffering of Amerli’s inhabitants.”
Dr. Ali Albayati, a physician working with the Turkmen Saving Foundation, told the BBC he was speechless in trying to describe condition in the besieged town.
“After the attack of Mosul, all the Shiite Turkmen villages around Amerli were captured by the Islamic State. They killed the people and displayed their bodies outside the village,” he told the BBC.
“We are depending on salty water, which gives people diarrhea and other diseases. Since the siege started more than 50 sick or elderly people have died,” he said.
He added that many children have died also because of dehydration and disease.
“I can't describe the situation. I just don't know what to say,” he said.
Former Kurdistan Region prime minister Barham Salih, Tweeted that: “ISIL aims to control Amerli.” He warned of a “Turkmen mass slaughter if they succeed. Calamity must be averted.”
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