UN calls for $173m for winter in Iraq

Almost 1.3 million people in Iraq desperately need help to survive the winter, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The organization has appealed for US 173.1 million dollars to provide basic needs, such as shelter and warm clothing, for those who have been forced to flee from their homes.
"Winter has arrived in many parts of the country and hundreds of thousands of displaced people are being hit with heavy rains, storms and dropping temperatures, especially at night and especially in the mountain areas of the Kurdistan region of Iraq," spokesperson for OCHA Jens Laerke said.
1.9 million people have been displaced across Iraq since the beginning of the year and nearly half of them are in the high altitude areas of the Kurdistan region, where the temperatures will drop below zero," Laerke added.