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Iraq

One year after the Nineveh plains are retaken, humanitarian partners are ramping up assistance to returning families [EN/AR/KU]

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(Baghdad, 14 October 2017) – Humanitarian partners are ramping up assistance to tens of thousands of vulnerable people in the Nineveh Plains.

“Conditions in the Nineveh Plains vary. In some places, large numbers of civilians are coming home. In others, very few are. The decision to return is shaped by many factors.
Families are worried about insecurity, political uncertainty and the lack of services,” said Ms. Grande.

In addition to the support being given by the Government, over 30 UN agencies and NGOs are providing assistance to communities living in the northern, southern and western sectors of the Nineveh Plains. In recent months, 166,000 people have benefitted from medical consultations, 91,600 have received food parcels and 35,000 children have benefitted from education support. Major efforts have been made to provide safe drinking water; 49,600 people have benefitted from boreholes and 36,800 people from water trucks.

Close to one million people are estimated to have fled their homes in the Nineveh Plains since the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The majority of displaced are from vulnerable ethnic and religious minority groups, including Yezidi, Christian and Shabak.

“Many civilians from these communities have been specifically targeted by ISIL because of their religious beliefs,” said Ms. Grande. “They have suffered extreme trauma. What has happened to families is nearly unimaginable.”

“As humanitarians, we work on the basis of humanitarian principles, delivering assistance to people who need it the most. Assistance is targeted to the most vulnerable and delivered regardless of ethnicity or religion,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator.

“We rely on the generous support of donors in the international community,” said Ms.
Grande. “We can’t do what we need to do without funding.” To date, only 57 percent of the 2107 Humanitarian Response Fund for Iraq is funded, leaving a shortfall of USD 386 million for life-saving activities.

For further information, please contact: Rene Nijenhuis, Deputy Head of Office, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Iraq on (nijenhuis@un.org)

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