UN refugee agency airlifts winter supplies to Kurdistan region

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com)- The UN Refugee Agency ( UNHCR) started a new airlift that arrived in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Thursday, and the airlift carried winter aid supplies including thousands of tent insulations kits for displaced Iraqis, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Friday.

“Six more flights from Lahore, Pakistan, are scheduled to arrive before 12 December, bringing the total of insulation kits to 25,000,” Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

“Latest figures from UNHCR show that an estimated 2 million Iraqis have been displaced by the conflict since January,” he said. “More than 60,000 people are now living in eight tented camps.”

New camps are being constructed to house more than 300,000 others, the spokesman said, adding that some 700,000 people are still living in unfinished or abandoned buildings, schools, religious centers, and even public parks.

“Time is growing short,” UNHCR Regional Director Amin Awad warned Friday. “With temperatures now dropping across Iraq, we must get this essential support to the most vulnerable Iraqi displaced immediately.”

Latest figures now indicate that around 2 million Iraqis have been displaced since January. More than 60,000 people are now living in eight tented camps. Funding constraints are also a major challenge. UNHCR has received less than half of the more than 110 million U.S. dollars it is seeking for winterization. /End/