One-year-old dies of scorching heat in Anbar refugee camp
Displaced families from Mosul.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A one-year-old girl died from intensely hot weather at a refugee camp in Anbar, a local official reported Tuesday as refugees displaced by Islamic State-security battles continue to endure livelihood difficulties at camps.
Teeba Marwan Hakim died due to soaring temperature at al-Tasea (ninth) refugee camp in Khalidiya, Ali Dawood, the town’s mayor, said in statements quoted by Alsumaria News.
He urged the Iraqi migration ministry to secure refugees’ needs amid the soaring heat and other difficulties they endure at camps.
Several refugees had died of hunger and cold weather at refugee camps since Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, launched a major offensive in October to retake Mosul, Islamic State’s biggest stronghold in Iraq. Operations have displaced at least 600.000 people from the city and hundreds of thousands others at neighboring provinces where IS maintains a presence, including Anbar.
Islamic State currently controls only nine percent of territories at western Mosul and seven percent of Iraqi’s total area, according to Iraqi commanders. Operations are planned against IS havens in provinces outside Mosul, including Anbar, once the campaign in Mosul, currently ongoing at a handful of districts, concludes before the end of this month, as predicted by Iraqi commanders.