UN responds to Dhuluiya displaced [EN/AR]
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(Erbil, 14 January 2014): The United Nations and its partners are working to address the needs of hundreds of families displaced by fighting in the former besieged town of Dhuluiya, north of Baghdad.
“We’re working closely with local authorities and partners to ensure assistance gets to those in need,” Neill Wright, acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Iraq, said.
In December, Iraqi government forces recaptured the town in Salah al-Din Governorate from the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL) who had controlled large parts of the area for the past six months, preventing earlier such interventions or assessments.
With the arrival of winter, the situation of the IDPs and host communities began to worsen.
An estimated 1,200 families are in need of immediate support, the majority of them from Dhuluiya and IDPs from Al-Alam District, including food, shelter and medical supplies. In addition, children of the sub district have not received any form of education for months.
Some 380 homes were destroyed in Dhuluiya, resulting in hundreds of displaced families. Some families joined their relatives, while others sought shelter in unfinished buildings or gardens.
In response, UN agencies agreed on an initial joint response for 500 affected families. “What we know at this stage is that the displaced families are living in immensely difficult conditions, lacking the most basic of services. Our priority now is to ensure emergency aid gets to the most vulnerable, particularly those exposed to the elements,” Wright said.
In the past week, the World Food Programme (WFP), in partnership with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has distributed immediate response rations good for three days to 500 families through local authorities, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has distributed core relief items, including blankets, jerry cans and hygiene kits with Muslim Aid, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has dispatched medical supplies to the local health centre, enough for 5,000 people for three months.