Humanitarian partners rush assistance to Samarra displaced [EN/AR/KU]
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(Erbil, 4 March 2015): Humanitarian partners are delivering life-saving assistance to thousands of families in Samarra District following clashes in Salah al-Din Governorate.
The assistance includes three convoys of water and sanitation supplies dispatched by UNICEF including one sent yesterday for 24,000 people. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is sending a convoy today from Baghdad of non-food items for 500 families.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is sending emergency rations tomorrow, followed by family food rations in the coming weeks. The World Health Organization (WHO) is dispatching emergency medical supplies based on ongoing assessments and will vaccinate children under the age of five against polio.
Non-governmental organizations are helping to register displaced families and deliver food parcels and non-food items. “We are very worried about the humanitarian situation in Samarra. We know that people are in need and we’re working around the clock to get assistance to them,” Lise Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Iraq, said.
In recent weeks, heavy fighting between Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Salah al-Din has resulted in thousands of people being displaced from Daur District, and elsewhere in the governorate.
On Monday, ISF launched a large-scale offensive to retake Tikrit, the provincial capital, 150 km north of Baghdad, which fell to ISIL forces, along with the northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in the summer of 2014. “When people need help, we try to do everything possible to reach them. We’re working closely with local authorities and under the leadership of the government to get aid where’s it’s needed the most. We know that humanitarian needs are increasing because of the clashes and we’re doing what we can to be ready and to respond.” Grande said.
For further information, please contact: David Swanson, OCHA Public Information Officer, swanson@un.org, Cell +964 750-377-0849 OCHA press releases are available at www.unocha.org or www.reliefweb.int.