OCHA stresses dire humanitarian situation in Iraq

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday highlighted the demanding humanitarian situation in Iraq as winter approaches.

Having returned from a joint mission of OCHA and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) into Iraq last week, Rashid Khalikov, director of OCHA’s Geneva Office, told journalists that Iraq was facing “an immense humanitarian emergency.”

He said 5.2 million Iraqis across the country were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, and 1.8 million people had been displaced since January this year, half of whom were children.

Given the shabby shelters that hundreds of thousands of the displaced took and the upcoming harsh weather, Khalikov stressed the necessity of making winterization efforts, including building caravans, pitching winter tents and providing warm clothes and additional health services.

“800,000 people (in Iraq) are in urgent need of shelter and many more are in need of winterization assistance,” said Khalikov.

He appealed for more contributions from the international community for the recently-launched Strategic Response Plan which requests 2.2 billion U.S. dollars to cover the humanitarian and protection needs of the Iraqi people by the end of 2015,

“The needs are immense. It is imperative that we step up our efforts now. We all have a role to play,” he added. /End/