ReliefWeb

Highlights

• 90,100 displaced people, over 10,000 returnees, and hundreds of thousands of highly vulnerable residents in newly-retaken areas require assistance.

• As many as one million people are estimated to remain out of reach of humanitarian assistance in Mosul city. Of particular concern are reports of food and water shortages.

• Trauma injuries among civilians continue to be of significant concern, with 685 injuries reported in the reporting period, mainly from gunshots, mines, and indirect fire. This is a 30 per cent increase on last week, where 410 referrals were made.

• The Mosul emergency is a protection crisis. 154 unaccompanied girls and boys have been registered for follow up with social workers. Over 101,175 people have been reached with protection services since 17 October.

Situation Overview

Nearly two months after military operations to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) began, civilians continue to be significantly impacted by the fighting. Some 90,100 people are currently displaced as a result of the on-going Mosul operations, which began on 17 October 2016. Of primary humanitarian concern is the severe shortage of drinking water faced by residents remaining in areas recently retaken from ISIL by Iraqi forces. Humanitarian partners are working to bring basic water supply infrastructure and services back online, including work to repair a damaged water treatment plant in Salamiya. Humanitarian partners are also surveying locations to drill boreholes in recently retaken areas to increase water output and distribution.

Food supplies have also been in short supply in recently retaken neighborhoods. Both the government and humanitarian partners have undertaken food distributions in camps. On 8 December, the UN carried out its firstlarge-scale distribution of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance in recently retaken neighbourhoods in eastern Mosul city. Supplies on 27 trucks from WFP, UNICEF, and UNFPA were delivered to 45,000 people, including many women and children. The supplies included ready-to-eat emergency food for one week, high energy biscuits, baby kits, bottled water, water purification tablets, hygiene kits, and dignity kits.

Emergency medical assistance is also in short supply, with a significant increase in recent weeks of civilians with trauma injuries as a result of the fighting, primarily from gunshot wounds and indirect fire. Trauma kits have been provided to Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities, and humanitarian partners are mobilizing to provide additional trauma care facilities in or near eastern parts of Mosul city. There is also a need for stabilization points and field hospitals to be established in or near Mosul city to provide secondary health care services (triage, trauma management and surgery) to reduce the burden on hospitals in Erbil.

The sudden onset of cold winter weather has compounded the impact on people affected by the conflict in Mosul city, particularly those who have been displaced from their homes. Protective shelter, heating and fuel, warm clothing and blankets are priority needs for many affected people. As over half of those displaced are children under 18, there is also a need to ensure that the Temporary Learning Spaces (TLSs) that have been established in the camps are winterized, to avoid the risk of a significant decline in attendance in the coming weeks.

Another 9,000 people have been newly displaced in the last seven days. There is a fear that, should military operations in Mosul intensify, greater numbers of people may be subsequently displaced. In coordination with the Government’s Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCCC) and the Ministry of Migration and Displacement (MoMD), humanitarian partners are working to establish new sites to receive newly displaced people.

Establishing and maintaining humanitarian access remains critical to ensuring the distribution of humanitarian aid close to the front lines, where it is needed most. Wherever possible, efforts are being made undertake access and security assessment missions followed by the rapid response of assistance. Vulnerable people are in urgent need of ongoing support and the humanitarian community continues to call on all parties to the conflict to ensure humanitarian access and allow aid deliveries to reach all people in need.

Since the beginning of the response, 35,759 family non-food item (NFI) kits have been distributed by the NFI/Emergency Shelter cluster in both camps and to vulnerable communities out of camps. With temperatures dipping below freezing overnight, 62 per cent of these families (22,315 families) also received additional winter top-up items including heaters, jerry cans for fuel and thermal mats. Between 7 and 8 December, MoMD delivered 680 blankets and 300 kerosene stoves in Hasansham and Qayyara Jad’ah camps. The MoMD also distributed more than 16,000 dry food rations as well as 15,000 ready to eat food rations out of camp in Hay Al-Qahira, Al-Zuhur, Al-Ekha’, Hay Al-Entsar, Namrud villages and Al-Qadisiya, as well as in Qayyara Jad'ah and Khazer Camps.