UN says 5.4 million displaced from Iraq since 2014

The United Nations has estimated the number of civilians displaced by the war ongoing in Iraq since 2014 at more than four million persons. In a statement issued on Monday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande, said “More than 5.4 million civilians have been displaced in Iraq since 2014.”

Grande highlighted importance of protecting lives of people who were affected by the war. “International humanitarian law is clear. Everything must be done to ensure people are safe and have access to the assistance they need.”

Grande also expressed concern about disabled people, the elderly and the children. Hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of very young children, have been exposed to extreme danger, stress, and trauma and will require years of specialized support and care.”

In related news, Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, expressed worries about the safety of civilians, even after the fighting in and near Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk, came to an end.

On Saturday, the Joint Operations Command announced concluding the second phase of Hawija offensive, killing 385 IS members, including five snipers. 150 villages in Hawija were freed, in addition to al-Abbassi region and the northern side of the town. Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah, commander of Hawija Operations, said Federal Police, the rapid Response forces and PMFs accomplished their targets of the second phase.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi declared last week liberation of Hawija. The second phase of the offensive was launched in late September.

On the military side, Bodies of two pilots, who were reportedly killed by Islamic State in southwestern Kirkuk last year, have been found, the Iraqi air force said.

In a press release on Monday, the air force said, “the bodies of two pilots, who were killed as their Cessna Caravan 208 jet crashed on March 16th, 2016, in Hawija, were found.”

“The two victims were Brig. Gen. Ali Feleih Hassan al-Abboudi and Lt.Gen. Mohamed abdel Wahab Razouqi al-Sheikhli,” the statement said adding that army was able to find the bodies, in cooperation with people who knew about the place, where IS buried the victims. Last year, the militant group claimed its members downed an Iraqi military jet, which was surveilling above Hawija.

On Saturday, the Joint Operations Command announced concluding the second phase of Hawija offensive, killing 385 IS members, including five snipers. 150 villages in Hawija were freed, in addition to al-Abbassi region and the northern side of the town. Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah, commander of Hawija Operations, said Federal Police, the rapid Response forces and PMFs accomplished their targets of the second phase.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi declared last week liberation of Hawija. The second phase of the offensive was launched in late September. According to Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell, 557 IS militants were killed, while more than 100 villages and regions were liberated during the first phase, which launched on September 24th.

On humanitarian side, Seven more members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority have been released over the past 24 hours, a Kurdish official was quoted saying Tuesday. Hussein Qaidi, an official of the Dohuk-based office in charge of Yazidi abductees, said a 30-year-old woman with her four children, another 24-year-old lady and an eight-year-old girl were released from Islamic State captivity in Syria.

Qaidi said the individuals would be handed over to their relatives once paperwork is finished in the office. “All of those rescued are in need for psychological assistance, having been in Daesh (IS) grip since 2014,” said Qaidi.

A statistic released by the Kurdistan Region Government’s Endowments and Religious Affairs Ministry in July said Islamic State’s massacres of Yazidis forced nearly 360.000 of the religious minority to flee their areas. It said IS had  kidnapped 6417 Yazidis since 2014, the report added. Those included 1102 women and 1655 children, the statistics show, adding that authorities had run into 43 mass graves of Yazidi victims slaughtered by IS,.

Islamic State massacred and enslaved thousands of Yazidis when they overran their Sinjar region, west of Nineveh. In August, the United Nations said Yazidi atrocities under the Islamic State continued. “The genocide is ongoing and remains largely unaddressed, despite the obligation of States…to prevent and to punish the crime,” the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report.

“Thousands of Yazidi men and boys remain missing and the terrorist group continues to subject some 3,000 women and girls in Syria to horrific violence including brutal daily rapes and beatings,” it added.