Over 1,000 internally-displaced people repatriated in Anbar province
Displaced children who fled the clashes queue to receive aid from Iraqi security forces in Antesaar neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – Over 1,000 internally-displaced people have returned to their homes in al-Qa’im and al-Karma districts in Anbar province, the Iraqi ministry of migration said on Monday.
“The repatriated people, totaling 1,072, were residing at camps in Amiriya Fallujah, Bzebez and the Tourist City in Anbar,” Alsumaria News TV channel quoted the director of the ministry’s office in Anbar, Mostafa Hamed Sarhan, as saying.
“Of all the returnees, 623 people came from the Habbaniyah Tourist City camp, 367 from the Bzebez camp and 82 from the Ameriat al-Fallujah camp,” Sarhan added.
He pointed out that coordination is maintained with the Ministry of Transport and Anbar Operations Command to facilitate the arrival of the repatriated people to their houses.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The surge in violence between Islamic State militants and government forces has resulted in over five million internally displaced persons across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Iraq’s war against the Islamic State has also left thousands dead, according to government and United Nations figures. In 2017 alone, violence left more than 3,000 dead and more than 4,000 wounded.
The government is, however, facing the challenge of adapting repatriated civilians to war-demolished infrastructure.