AID: The latest £20million funding will help up to 50,000 internally displaced people in Iraq who have been forced to flee their homes due to the Islamic State
AID: The latest £20million funding will help up to 50,000 internally displaced people in Iraq who have been forced to flee their homes due to the Islamic State

Food, water and essentials to be provided for the displaced 

The UK will provide new life-saving support to tens of thousands of Iraqis, who have been forced to flee their homes by the brutal rise of Islamic State, International Development Minister Desmond Swayne announced last week.

Speaking during a visit to Iraq, Mr Swayne set out how £20 million in new funding from the UK would provide medical care, clean water and improved sanitation, shelter, cash support and other essentials to displaced Iraqis.

He also warned that the international community should not forget Iraq when responding to the wider instability affecting neighbouring Syria.

More than eight-million people require humanitarian assistance inside Iraq, with 3.2 million Iraqis internally displaced by ongoing conflict – an increase of 1.5 million people in a year.

With reports of cholera inside the nation, provision of clean drinking water and improved sanitation is particularly important to help prevent a wider outbreak, as Mr Swayne explained.

“We cannot separate out what is happening in Iraq from the instability gripping Syria and the wider region,” he said. “The obscenities committed by ISIL (another term for Islamic State) show no respect for borders, just as they show no respect for creed or gender.

“These terrorists torture and kill Muslims, Yazidis and Christians alike and enslave and brutalise girls and women – in direct violation of the teachings of the religion they purport to represent.

“A year ago, the eyes of the world were fixed on the plight of thousands of people trapped on Mount Sinjar.

“A concerted, urgent international effort meant the difference between life and death for them. But as the number of displaced people in Iraq continues to grow daily, the world’s gaze appears to have wandered.

“The UN’s latest appeal is seriously underfunded and we do not want to see more Iraqis being forced to move because they cannot get the help they need where they are. Donors must step up to meet the shortfall now, to prevent Iraq’s problems spilling over its borders.”