Since the start of the Iraqi military operation to retake Mosul in October last year, more than 144,500 people have been displaced and a majority of them are in desperate need of live-saving humanitarian assistance, the United Nations migration agency has warned.

    "Humanitarian aid is essential for the survival of the thousands of families displaced by Mosul operations who have left everything behind to save their own lives," Chief of the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) operations in Iraq Thomas Lothar Weiss said.

    "Assistance must provide for a range of needs – including shelter, household items, health and livelihoods," he added, underlining the need for additional funding to sustain relief efforts and to prepare for further displacement from the ongoing crisis.

    According to the agency’s Displaced Tracking Matrix (DTM), 144,588 people have been displaced between the 17 October 2016 start of military operation against the ISIS militants in Mosul and 12 January this year.

    Particularly startling is that between 5-12 January, some 12,354 people (2,059 families) have been forced to move. At the start of the military operations, some 1.5 million civilians were living in Mosul city. 

    Over 126,000 displaced persons are currently in camps and emergency sites operated by the government, IOM, and other UN agencies. The rest reside in host communities, and private or public buildings, the migration agency added

Source: QNA