LOC18:20
15:20 GMT
GENEVA, Sept 23 (KUNA) -- Four UN agencies on Tuesday expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Iraq and Syria.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it has witnessed a sharp increase in Iraqi refugees in Jordan in recent weeks, with 60 percent of them citing fears of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the reason for their flight.
"In August and September, on average, 120 Iraqis per day have registered with UNHCR in Jordan, up from 65 per day in June and July and just 30 per day in the first five months of 2014", said Melissa Fleming the UNHCR press spokesperson in a press briefing.
Almost two thirds of new arrivals (60 per cent) hail from ISIL-controlled areas in Nineva, Salah Al Din and Anbar governorates. Refugees report their homes being burned, threat of forced conversion to Islam, fears of forced marriage, kidnapping and public threats. The rest of the newly arriving refugees in Jordan have fled sectarian violence in Baghdad and Basra, she explained.
So far this year, 10,644 Iraqi refugees have registered with UNHCR in Jordan, with 1,383 registering in August alone - the highest monthly tally of new registrations since 2007, Fleming said.
"Meanwhile in Turkey, some 103,000 Iraqi refugees have come forward to be registered by UNHCR or its partners, including 65,000 since June 2014 when ISIL forces took over Mosul and surrounds in Nineva governorate of northern Iraq," she added. "We know many thousands more are in the eastern part of Turkey and have yet to come forward for registration."
In the same Press briefing, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said it has provided urgently needed food assistance to more than one million people across Iraq, who were displaced since conflict erupted in mid-June, despite a challenging security situation and the continuous movement of people.
"With the help of our partners, we managed to scale up and expand our assistance to additional areas reaching displaced families who fled with nothing but their lives and who were previously inaccessible," said spokesperson Elizabeth Byers.
"This month we reached people sheltering in Muthana and Thi-Qar governorates in southern Iraq for the first time, allowing us to cross the one million mark of number of people assisted by WFP," she added.
Despite the fact that displaced people are on the move and the ongoing fighting further complicates access, WFP has provided food assistance in 13 out of the 18 Iraqi governorates including the three Kurdish Governorates, Erbil, Dahuk, and Sulaymaniyah, as well as Nineveh, Kirkuk, al-Anbar, Diyala, Babel, Wassit, Karbala, Najaf, in addition to Muthana and Thi-Qar governorates, Byers explained.
According to Byers, around 1.8 million Iraqis have been displaced by the conflict in Iraq since mid-June.
For the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the humanitarian crisis continues to mount in Iraq and the displaced population has increased. Many families have sought refuge in less desirable forms of shelter.
Trends in accommodation arrangements vary by region. In Iraq's Central North region, 38 percent of displaced families live with relatives or host communities, while in the South, 67 percent of displaced families reside in religious buildings, Millman said in same press briefing.
"Over this recent period, 792 families fled from Ninewa to Sulaymaniyah District. Further displacement has been recorded south of Baghdad with 916 families seeking refuge in the governorates of Najaf, Basrah, Thi Qar, Missan and Muthana," he added.
Rupert Colville, spokesperson of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said the OHCHR is gravely concerned about the situation around the northern Syrian area of Kobani, whose residents, mostly Kurdish, have been fleeing an onslaught by fighters from the Takfiri group.
Residents of Kobani have lived in difficult humanitarian conditions since the town and surrounding villages first came under siege by ISIL forces last year, with shortages of food, fuel and potable water, he added.
According to OHCHR, since 15 September, ISIL has reportedly captured at least 105 Kurdish villages in Kobani.
The UN has received very alarming reports of deliberate killing of civilians, including women and children, the abduction of hundreds of Kurds by ISIL, and widespread looting and destruction of infrastructure and private property, Colville said.(end)
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