Humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq as ISIS advances

The advance of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in Northern Iraq has displaced about 200,000 people, most of them coming from the Yazidi ethnic minority.

Iraqis displaced by fighting in the north-west of the country must be given urgent humanitarian assistance, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

The appeal was made after hoards of civilians fled the town of Sinjar and surrounding areas following an attack by militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which now goes by the name of the Islamic State. Tens of thousands are trapped without basic necessities or vital supplies in the Sinjar Mountain area south of the city, the human rights movement said in a statement.

“The civilians trapped in the mountain area are not only at risk of being killed or abducted by ISIS; they are also suffering from a lack of water, food and medical care, the organization said.

They are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser, who is currently in northern Iraq.

UN special representative of the secretary general for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, urged the country’s authorities to “work with the UN to ensure the delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance.” He has also called on the Kurdistan Regional Government, embattling the jihadists, to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

[KUNA]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid by Grant Montgomery.