Two thousand IDPs flee Mosul on a daily basis, Iraqi minister

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An estimated 118,000 people have been displaced from Mosul and Hawija, a district south of the city, said Iraq’s minister for displacement and migration on Saturday. 

“Nearly 2,000 people are displaced on a daily basis” said Minister Darbaz Muhammad in a joint press conference with the acting governor of Sulaimani. They are prepared to receive 120,000 more internally displaced persons (IDPs), he added.

People who have fled Mosul since the start of the military offensive to retake the city on October 17 have been settled in both camps and in host communities, Muhammad detailed. 

The Kurdistan Regional Government recently announced that they have received more than 60,000 Mosul IDPs who are mostly settled in the provinces of Duhok and Erbil, also known as Hawler.

“Locating Mosul IDPs in Sulaimani is plan B if plan A didn’t work, which is locating most of them in Duhok and Hawler provinces” Muhammad said, adding he expects some number of IDPs will be hosted in the more southerly province of Sulaimani.

The Kurdistan Region is struggling to cope with these new arrivals in addition to Syrian refugees and IDPs from other areas of Iraq, a problem Muhammad said his government is aware of. 

In an effort to relieve some of the financial and logistic pressure on the KRG, the Iraqi minister announced 3 million litres of fuel will be provided for the people in the region.