After grueling journey, Mosul’s displaced find refuge in camp
Displaced Iraqi Lafi and his family pose for a photograph in a tent at Hammam al-Alil camp south of Mosul, Iraq, March 29, 2017. Thirteen people live in the tent. In Mosul, they all lived under the same roof. In the camp, the adults spend a lot of time looking for food and water, Lafi said. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
The 31-year-old Orouba was then trapped at home for days as her district in western Mosul turned into a battle zone between the government and the militants defending their last stronghold
in Iraq. She eventually managed to flee with her three children.
“No one is left for me over there so I came here … I cannot return to the house,” she told Reuters, sitting in the tent she shares with her brother’s family in the Hammam al-Alil camp, which is home to some 30,000 displaced people.
Orouba was eventually reunited with her brother in the camp after the two had little contact since Islamic State overran Mosul in June 2014 and banned mobile phones under their extreme version of Sunni Islam.
Those who have fled Iraq’s second largest city describe a grueling journey, where in some instances entire neighborhoods have left together, often at daybreak, sometimes under mortar shelling or air strikes.
Fathers covered their children’s eyes, neighbors helped carry the disabled, and men were often separated from their wives to be questioned by the Iraqi army manning the checkpoints around the city.
Like many others, Gorha Mahmoud said she and her family walked for 48 hours in the rain and cold before reaching Hammam al-Alil. They had to wait a further 24 hours at the entrance gate as there was no tent for them at first.
In the camp, a semblance of normality has returned for the families. Children over six attend morning classes, women carry out domestic chores while men look for work and food.
“Here life is normal. The aid is plentiful and the people are nice,” Orouba said.
The United Nations refugee agency said in March it had opened two new camps to host those fleeing the fighting in Mosul, adding 40,000 places to its existing facilities.