The United Nations is requesting emergency funding to address the humanitarian crisis as nearly 1 million Iraqis have been displaced and the damage to their homes remains a barrier to return.
“Many of the people who have fled have lost everything. They need shelter, food, health care, water, sanitation and emergency kits. The levels of trauma we are seeing are some of the highest anywhere. What people have experienced is nearly unimaginable,” said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande.
Of 54 total residential neighborhoods in west Mosul, 15 are heavily damaged and at least 23 are moderately damaged.
“It’s a relief to know that the military campaign in Mosul is ending. The fighting may be over, but the humanitarian crisis is not,” Grande stated in UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report.
Additionally, there are still civilians trapped in areas such as Tal Afar, Hawija and western Anbar, who are at extreme risk as fighting, is likely to occur in these areas.
“There’s a lot of work to do in the weeks and months ahead,” Grande stated.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited western and eastern Mosul on Sunday.
“The Prime Minister Dr. Haider al-Abadi arrives in the liberated Mosul, and congratulates the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people for achieving the great victory,” his media office said in a short statement.
Abadi in a statement after meeting with military officials “issued directives on the continuation of victories and the elimination of Daesh remnants calling for the necessity of establishing security and stability in the liberated city and clearing it of mines and explosives [which] the enemy lift behind ensuring the protection of civilians and IDPs.”
