UPDATED: refugees from western Mosul above 150.000: minister
Displaced families from Mosul
Migration and Displacement Minister Jassem al-Jaff said 152.857 people left western Mosul to refugee camps in the same city.
Earlier on Thursday, an aid group said 9000 Iraqis left western Mosul over the past two days.
“Security forces, relief teams and humanitarian organizations have evacuated nearly 9000 civilians, mostly women and children, from districts in western Mosul over the past 48 hours,” Iyad Rafed, a member of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, told Anadolu Agency.
Those were evacuated from Bab al-Jadid, Ras al-Khour, Badush and other districts recaptured by security forces earlier due to shortages in aid items and potable water, he said.
On Wednesday, Jassem al-Attiya, an undersecretary of the Iraqi displacement and migration ministry, said refugees from western Mosul reached 125.000 since operations to retake that part of the city launched in February. The ministry said earlier this month the total of refugees since the launch of operations to retake Mosul in October 2016 reached more than 250.000.
The United Nations predicted before the offensive on Mosul that at least 1.5 million civilians could be displaced, and predicted at least 400.000 to flee due to battles in the west.
U.N. agencies and aid groups have regularly reported of medicine and food shortages at refugee camps, while others recounted refugee deaths as extremists targeted them upon fleeing.