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Mosul Update - Norwegian Refugee Council 3 March

Countries
Iraq
Sources
NRC
Publication date

Media update on Mosul—Norwegian Refugee Council

3 March 2017

  • At least 30,708 people have fled West Mosul since the start of the military operations to retake that part of the city. The majority of these people have fled in the last week. The UN estimates that there are up to 800,000 people still living in West Mosul. It is believed that half of those people live in the densely populated old city.
  • Although the Hammam al Alil camp is already at capacity with people who have fled the conflict, aid agencies are preparing to receive thousands more new arrivals over the next few days.
  • Water, sanitation and hygiene are the main needs inside the Hammam al Alil camp and three health facilities, including one hospital, are planned.

NRC Country Director in Iraq, Wolfgang Gressmann, said: “Thousands of people are fleeing every day from Mosul. We are meeting their immediate needs, but fear that the worst is yet to come - hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped inside the city.”

In their own words: Families who fled from western Mosul

“We were trapped in our house for five days. All we had was stale bread; bread we’d normally give to animals,” Mohamed, father of five. “I carried my 90 year-old father for 10 kilometres until we reached safety,” Ahmed, 39 years old. “ISIS wanted us to leave our house but we refused. We hid in our basement for three days to make them think we left. There was a huge battle last night. In the morning there was silence so we made our escape. ISIS fighters wanted to escape with us, but we wouldn’t let them,” Sabhan, one of a family of 12. Testimony collected by NRC staff on 2 March 2017.

Norwegian Refugee Council

  • NRC is responding to the Mosul crisis, providing essential aid to displaced Iraqis.
  • 828 kits (food, drinking water, personal and hygiene kits) were distributed to 687 families on 2 March.
  • A total of 3,458 households, or around 20,784 people in displacement camps outside Mosul have been provided with food and drinking water by NRC over the last three days.