Over 150,000 children endangered by ‘freezing’ temperatures, warns UNICEF
In this file photograph, children at a refugee camp in Suleimaniyah, northern Iraq, walk to their school, along a muddy path on a cold, rainy winter day.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has ramped up efforts to provide warm clothes and life-saving supplies to more than 150,000 displaced children across northern Iraq, whose lives are threatened by freezing temperatures.
Speaking about the flash floods that swept several Iraqi cities last month, Peter Hawkins, the head of UNICEF operations in Iraq, said: “The devastating floods have made this winter even more difficult for displaced children who are extremely vulnerable to hypothermia and respiratory diseases.”
He underscored that every child “deserves to be warm and healthy.”
Many families in the region have been left with next to nothing after being on the move for years due to conflict and resulting economic hardship. It is “impossible” for them afford fuel for heating and winter clothes to keep their children warm, the UN agency warned.
UNICEF is providing winter clothes, including boots, scarves, and hats to approximately 161,000 children in Sinjar, Erbil, Dohuk, Ninawa, Anbar, Diwaniya, Basra, Salaheddin, Baghdad and Suleimaniah, including through cash support.
According to the UN agency, those receiving assistance age between 3-months and 14-years, in hard-to-reach areas, having been through years of violence, including gender-based violence, and trauma of war.