Over 1.5m Iraqis Displaced By Daesh Attacks: IOM

Tehran, Aug 9, IRNA – Over one and half million Iraqis have been displaced following terrorist attacks of Daesh, the so-called Islamic State, it was reported on Saturday. According to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), armed conflict between the terrorist group and the KR-I Peshmerga military has pushed the confirmed number of internally displaced (IDP) Iraqis nationwide to over one million as of August 7. ˈThis is highest number of IDPs in Iraq since the IS advance began in January 2014,ˈ said the report. The number included the latest displacements from the Sinjar crisis and existing national IDP numbers compiled by IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM). The report added that in total, IOM Rapid Response and Assessment Teams (RARTs) have identified 176,150 IDP families (an estimated 1,056,900 individuals) in 1,381 locations throughout Iraq since January 2014. Over 54 per cent or 94,597 families (some 567,582 individuals) of the total became displaced after June 2014. The wave of Yezidi ethnic and religious minorities who fled to the Sinjar mountains on the border with Syria in Iraqˈs Ninewa Governorate remain trapped in the mountains, unable to reach safe areas, said the report. According to IOM sources, some families fled to Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria and have taken up temporary residence in villages along the Syria-Iraq border. The humanitarian situation remains dire and the situation highly fluid. Many families trapped in the mountains are without food, water or any way of contacting the outside world. Humanitarian airdrops have been announced by the United States./end