An Iraqi minister on Saturday sharply criticized UN efforts to aid civilians fleeing fighting in west Mosul, even as the UN insisted that providing such assistance was the “top priority.”
Tens of thousands of people have fled west Mosul since Iraqi forces launched an operation to retake it from Daesh on Feb. 19, pushing into the area from the south.
“Unfortunately, there is a clear shortfall in the work of these (UN) organizations,” said Jassem Mohammed Jaff, minister of displacement and migration.
Asked to elaborate, Jaff said: “The UN talks a lot but the efforts being made are little, despite the huge amount of money in their possession.”
More than 50,000 people have fled west Mosul since the push to retake it was launched, Jaff said.
The UN, which has been providing shelter, food and other assistance to Iraqis who have fled Mosul during the nearly five-month-long battle, said it is working as fast as possible to help those displaced.
“The top priority for humanitarians is to make sure that there is sufficient capacity at emergency sites to deal with the number of civilians who are fleeing western Mosul,” said Lise Grande, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Iraq.
“In the past several weeks, we have been rushing to... construct that capacity, and we are redoubling our efforts now,” Grande said.
Meanwhile, 12 people, including women and children, are being treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in Mosul, the UN said.
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has activated with partners and local health authorities “an emergency response plan to safely treat men, women and children who may be exposed to the highly toxic chemical,” the agency said in a statement.
It said all 12 patients had been received since March 1 for treatment which they are undergoing in Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, east of Mosul.
Four of them are showing “severe signs associated with exposure to a blister agent.” The patients were exposed to the chemical agents in the eastern side of Mosul.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday that five children and two women were receiving treatment for exposure to chemical agents.
The ICRC statement did not say which side used the chemical agents that caused blisters, redness in the eyes, irritation, vomiting and coughing.
Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris river on Feb. 19. The eastern side remains within reach of the militants’ rockets and mortar shells.
Defeating Daesh in Mosul would crush the Iraqi wing of the caliphate declared by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in 2014, over parts of Iraq and Syria.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Lise Grande, called for an investigation.
“This is horrible. If the alleged use of chemical weapons is confirmed, this is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime, regardless of who the targets or the victims of the attacks are,” she said in a statement.
Daesh overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led airstrikes and other assistance have since regained most of the territory they lost to the extremists.
The battle to retake Mosul — the last Daesh-held city in Iraq — was launched on Oct. 17.
More than 190,000 people are currently displaced as a result of the battle for Mosul, while more fled but have since returned to their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Iraqi forces recaptured east Mosul in January, and have now set their sights on the smaller but more densely populated western side of the city.

Source: Arab News