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News ID: 31770
Publish Date : 30 September 2016 - 21:53
UN:

700,000 Will Need Aid Once Mosul Operation Begins


 






BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The United Nations says an estimated 700,000 people would need assistance once a looming military operation to liberate Mosul, which is Iraq's second-largest city and the main stronghold of the Daesh terrorist group in the crisis-hit Arab country, gets underway.
Bruno Geddo, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iraq, told reporters in the Swiss city of Geneva that the expected offensive on Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad, "has the potential" to displace over a million people.
The Iraqi government has pledged to retake the city this year but has not yet announced a date for the launch of the campaign.
"We are planning for at least 700,000 who will be in need of assistance, shelter food, [and] water" following the operation, the UNHCR pointed out.
Geddo further noted that the UN refugee agency had already begun building camps in preparation for a mass exodus from Mosul, but it faced constraints in erecting them in time and winning full funding for its plans.
The UN agency is hoping to have 11 camps finished by the end of the year with the capacity to hold 120,000 people, while Iraqi authorities expect to be able to house 150,000 more, he explained.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and leader of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region Masoud Barzani have reached a consensus to settle disagreements and join forces for the upcoming operation to liberate the city of Mosul.
The development came after a meeting between Abadi and Barzani in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has traveled to Baghdad at the head of a delegation, comprising members of four political parties, to hold talks with officials and political leaders. It is Barzani’s first trip to Baghdad over the last five years.
During a joint press conference after the meeting, the Iraqi premier said that the army had made final preparations for retaking Mosul, the last remaining bastion for the Daesh terrorist group in the north of the country.
Abadi also described the Mosul offensive as extremely important and noted that the army forces, supported by the Popular Mobilization Units as well as tribal and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, will score a victory there as was the case with other Iraqi cities and towns.