Iraq Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #3

April 11, 2016

Highlights

USG announces nearly $155 million in additional humanitarian assistance for displaced and conflict-affected Iraqis in Iraq and surrounding countries

UNDP continues planning for a potential breach of the Mosul Dam in coordination with the GoI

Key Developments

On April 8, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced nearly $155 million in additional humanitarian funding from USAID/OFDA, USAID/FFP, and State/PRM to assist people affected by the Iraq complex emergency. The new USG funding will support UN agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide life-saving assistance, including emergency food, shelter, safe drinking water, and protection and health care services, to approximately 3.4 million people displaced inside Iraq and nearly 222,000 Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries. The new funding also includes assistance for early warning and preparedness activities for people at risk of severe flooding from a potential failure of the Mosul Dam.

On April 9, the UN released a statement highlighting the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Anbar Governorate’s city of Fallujah, which has been under Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) control since 2014. As a result of the three-month siege and ISIL-related security concerns, the city remains inaccessible to civilian, commercial, and humanitarian transport and civilians are facing widespread food and medicine shortages. The UN is pre-positioning emergency food and other relief supplies for up to 60,000 people and expanding assistance in accessible areas where people may flee.

Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are returning to areas of origin in Anbar following the recapture of key Anbar cities, including Ar Ramadi and Hit, from ISIL by Iraq Security Forces (ISF) between late December and early April.

Relief agencies—including USG partners—have provided newly displaced households in Anbar with emergency food, health services, shelter, safe drinking water, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) supplies, as well as at least 11,300 USG-funded Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) kits, which provide a family of seven with hygiene supplies and sufficient food and safe drinking water for one week.

MOSUL DAM

The UN Development Program (UNDP), in coordination with the Government of Iraq (GoI), continues to develop contingency plans and an alert system to notify people in the event of a breach at Mosul Dam, including communities in ISIL-controlled areas along the Tigris River. The new $155 million USG contribution to the Iraq crisis includes assistance for early warning and preparedness activities for people at risk of severe flooding from a potential dam failure, including the strengthening and development of nationwide alert systems.

INSECURITY, POPULATION DISPLACEMENT, AND HUMANITARIAN ACCESS

As of April 9, more than 50,000 IDPs had returned to their areas of origin in Anbar’s Ar Ramadi District, which ISF recaptured from ISIL in early February. Of the returnees, more than 3,000 people have returned to Anbar’s city of Khaldiya and environs and approximately 41,500 people have returned to the city of Ar Ramadi and surrounding areas.

ISF had regained control of an estimated 75 percent of Anbar’s city of Hit from ISIL as of April 10, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Late-March military operations in and around Hit have displaced more than 36,000 people, and up to 5,000 newly displaced individuals arrived in Anbar’s Kilo 18 and Kilo 60 IDP sites on April 10, according to a local NGO. Prior to the April 10 arrivals, approximately 11,200 people were sheltering at the two sites, where USAID/OFDA partner the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is providing RRM kits and WASH support.

Despite insecurity-related access challenges, USAID/OFDA has also provided coordination and logistics support to enable the distribution of more than 1,000 emergency relief commodity kits to IDPs sheltering at Kilo 60, and USAID/OFDA partner the UN World Health Organization (WHO) established a temporary medical point at the site to provide IDPs with basic health services. As of March 24, relief agencies—including USG partners—had provided newly displaced households throughout Anbar with emergency food, health services, shelter, safe drinking water, and WASH supplies, as well as at least 11,300 USG-funded RRM kits.

Of the 36,000 people displaced from Hit and surrounding areas in late March, approximately 15,000 people have returned to recaptured rural areas in recent weeks; however, the GoI estimates that more than 20,000 civilians remain trapped inside the city without access to basic services.

An escalation of military operations to recapture ISIL-held areas in Salah ad Din Governorate has displaced more than 22,000 people between March 1 and 11, USG partner IOM reports. Most IDPs fled to a recently established IDP camp north of Salah ad Din’s city of Samarra and an informal camp near Salah ad Din’s city of Tikrit. Local authorities are permitting IDPs to enter Tikrit’s city center after screening and verifying that IDPs have met entrance requirements, including identifying a host community sponsor.

On March 8, ISIL militants conducted a second suspected chemical attack on Kirkuk Governorate’s city of Taza, resulting in the death of at least one child. International media report that up to 800 people sought medical attention for chemical-related injuries; however, health care workers had only treated approximately 110 patients for chemicalrelated injuries as of March 14, according to the Health Cluster—the coordinating body for humanitarian protection activities, comprising UN agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders. In preparation for future chemical attacks, the GoI Department of Health plans to request medications and medical equipment for the treatment of chemical-related injuries, including ventilators, from WHO. The Health Cluster is also advocating for additional mass casualty management training for GoI medical staff and increasing stocks of relevant medication and equipment supplies near conflict-affected areas.

Between March 25 and April 11, escalated military activity near the frontlines in Erbil Governorate’s Makhmour District had displaced at least 2,400 people to the Debaga IDP camp in Erbil, which now hosts more than 6,000 IDPs, resulting in overcrowded living conditions. Relief organizations anticipate that additional IDPs may seek shelter at Debaga as military operations in Makhmour continue. In coordination with relief agencies, the Erbil-based Joint Crisis Coordination Center is leading response efforts and is assessing potential locations for a relocation site for Makhmour IDPs as of April 11. Humanitarian actors operating in the area are providing relief assistance, and an NGO recently provided clothing and shoes for the new Makhmour IDPs, addressing a previously reported response gap. The Protection Cluster plans to monitor movement restrictions on new IDP sites to ensure the security measures at each site are proportionate to potential threats.

FOOD SECURITY

As part of the USG funding announcement on April 8, USAID/FFP contributed $41 million in locally and regionally procured food and cash assistance to the UN World Food Program (WFP) for emergency operations in Iraq. The funding will allow WFP to provide family food rations for approximately 1 million people for two and a half months and cash transfers or food vouchers for an estimated 370,000 people for one month. In addition, the contribution also provides WFP with nearly 590 metric tons of immediate response rations (IRRs) sufficient to meet the monthly emergency food needs of approximately 140,000 people for three months. Through WFP’s RRM, newly displaced persons receive IRRs during their first 72 hours of displacement in Iraq. USAID/FFP has provided $61 million to WFP in FY 2016.

In 2015, WFP reached more than 1.8 million displaced people with food assistance—approximately 83 percent of the total planned beneficiaries for WFP emergency operations—in all 18 governorates of Iraq. Although in-kind commodities composed the majority of WFP's total assistance, the agency also distributed more than $62 million in food vouchers. In addition, WFP assisted more than 100,000 Syrian refugees in nine refugee camps in Iraq through monthly food assistance and cash-based transfers.

The food security situation in Anbar Governorate is worsening, particularly in the besieged areas, where many people require immediate food assistance, according to the UN. The ISIL-held city of Fallujah remains inaccessible to civilian, commercial, and humanitarian transport, and respondents to a recent WFP mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping survey report that the markets have exhausted all food supplies. Prices for available food from private stocks remains severely inflated and humanitarian assistance has not reached the besieged areas of Fallujah since December 2015. In addition, armed groups have restricted civilian movement into rural areas on the outskirts of the Fallujah, limiting the ability of residents to farm and harvest produce, according to WFP. As a result, locally grown crops, which had become the primary food source for many residents of Fallujah, are becoming increasingly scarce. WFP also notes that no cooking fuel is available in the city and electricity is only available for a few hours each day.

In other areas of Anbar such as Hit, military operations around the city have increased the price of food with reported shortages in wheat flour and vegetable oil. The overall price of a partial food basket, containing lentils, wheat flour, vegetable oil, rice, and sugar was 31 percent higher in Hit in March 2016 compared to December 2015, WFP reports.

Following negotiations with Ninewa authorities and Kurdish Peshmerga Forces in late March, local tribal leaders provided emergency food assistance on March 21 to approximately 630 Jihaish tribe members trapped between ISIL and Peshmerga forces in an insecure area of Ninewa’s Mount Sinjar, according to the UN. The delivery marked the first provision of humanitarian assistance to the stranded population since February 27.

HEALTH AND WASH

A joint UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and GoI Ministry of Health assessment has found that only one-third of hospitals and no health centers in Iraq meet international emergency obstetric and neonatal care standards. The assessment, released on March 2, highlighted the necessity of upgrading hospitals and health centers to meet obstetric needs, as two-thirds of deliveries in Iraq take place in health care facilities. The report also recommended that international agencies and the GoI improve the capacity of health care providers by strengthening Iraq’s health information systems, addressing pharmaceutical supply chain gaps that can result in medicine shortages, and formulating more robust GoI policies related to emergency obstetric and neonatal health care.

Between mid-January and late March, USG partner UNFPA distributed more than 20,000 USAID/OFDA-funded dignity kits—which include clothing, combs, flashlights, head scarves, mosquito repellents, sewing kits, shampoo, and towels, among other items—in Anbar and Salah ad Din. UNFPA is pre-positioning an additional 35,000 USG-funded dignity kits to respond to potential insecurity-related population displacement from Fallujah and Hit, and is prepared to respond to potential crises in Ninewa and Erbil governorates with an additional 25,000 USG-funded dignity kits.

UNICEF reports that the final polio vaccination campaign using the trivalent vaccine—which unlike the bivalent vaccine, protects against the eradicated type 2 polioviruses—concluded on April 7. The use of the bivalent vaccine is part of the global transition away from trivalent vaccines to ensure the type 2 virus does not mutate as a result of overuse of the vaccine, according to WHO. The official switch from trivalent to bivalent vaccines in Iraq is scheduled for April 30.

SHELTER

IOM is providing emergency relief items and shelter support to populations in need of assistance throughout Iraq. As of February 29, IOM had distributed more than 23,600 emergency relief kits procured with DoD Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid funds to displaced and conflict-affected people in all of Iraq's 18 governorates. IOM also completed nearly 150 planned shelter rehabilitations in central and southern Iraq, including repairs to damaged houses and religious buildings.

As of early April, a USAID/OFDA partner had performed shelter repairs and upgrades—including installing doors, windows, and sealing material—on nearly 270 previously unfinished buildings hosting IDPs in Ninewa. The organization continues to assess other sites for potential shelter upgrade activities.

PROTECTION

USG partners continue to implement programs to address protection concerns, including the threat of unexploded ordnance (UXO), family separation, excessive security screenings and detention procedures, armed conflict, and sexual violence, which remain widespread throughout Iraq.

The threat of UXO to IDPs returning to Ninewa’s Sinjar District is immediate and substantial, according to a recent Mines Action Group (MAG) Mine Action Report for Sinjar District. As of February 2016, approximately 25,000 IDPs had returned to Sinjar’s Sinuni sub-district, where 55 percent of areas surveyed by MAG in 2015 were damaged or contaminated with UXO. MAG also reported that Ninewa’s city of Sinjar is unsafe for IDP returns due to its proximity to the ISIL frontline and the high level of UXO contamination. The NGO further noted that authorities in Sinjar and the town of Sinuni have limited capacity to clear affected areas of UXO and recommends undertaking a technical threat assessment to identify low-, medium-, and high-risk areas, as well as deploying additional UXO clearance teams to support eventual safe IDP returns to Sinjar District.

In a March 11 press release, State/PRM partner the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern about local authorities forcibly transporting Iraqis to camps in which their movement is restricted disproportionately to legitimate safety concerns. In Kirkuk, particularly at the Nawraza checkpoint and nearby UNHCR-operated IDP camp, authorities have increasingly imposed movement restrictions, confining all residents to the camp since February 22, including those residents that successfully completed the security screening process, according to UNHCR. The UN agency also expressed concern about similar restrictions in Garmawa IDP camp in Ninewa, as well as at IDP sites in Anbar and Salah ad Din. On March 23, OCHA also reported that some IDP camps in Anbar, Kirkuk, and Salah ad Din are de facto security screening centers, and practices at these facilities have raised serious protection concerns among humanitarian organizations.

With USG support, UNFPA is providing psychosocial support services to more than 30 IDPs who had fled ISIL after a year and seven months in captivity and arrived at an IDP camp in Dohuk Governorate during the week of March 6. UNFPA deployed a mobile team to supplement current UNFPA protection activities at the camp and provide the IDPs with emergency psychosocial support services. The team also referred survivors of sexual violence for additional care at a UNFPA- and Kurdish Regional Government-supported survivor center and provided USAID/OFDA-funded hygiene kits to female IDPs in the newly arrived group.

In February, USG partner IOM reached more than 1,100 IDPs in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) with psychosocial support services. Activities included individual counseling, livelihood development activities, and specialized referrals, among other services in five camps and three informal settlements in Dohuk and Erbil. In mid-February, IOM trained and deployed psychosocial support staff to Babylon, Baghdad, Karbala, and Najaf governorates to assess the need for psychosocial support services for IDPs in south and central Iraq.

OTHER HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

 On March 28, the Government of Japan (GoJ) provided an additional $29.5 million to support IDPs and Syrian refugees in Iraq, including $23.5 million to UNDP and $6 million to WFP. Since 2014, the GoJ has provided more than $256 million to the humanitarian response in Iraq.

PUBLIC DONATION INFORMATION

The most effective way people can assist relief efforts is by making cash contributions to humanitarian organizations that are conducting relief operations. A list of humanitarian organizations that are accepting cash donations for disaster responses around the world can be found at www.interaction.org.

USAID encourages cash donations because they allow aid professionals to procure the exact items needed (often in the affected region); reduce the burden on scarce resources (such as transportation routes, staff time, and warehouse space); can be transferred very quickly and without transportation costs; support the economy of the disaster-stricken region; and ensure culturally, dietary, and environmentally appropriate assistance.

More information can be found at:
- USAID Center for International Disaster Information: www.cidi.org or +1.202.821.1999.
- Information on relief activities of the humanitarian community can be found at www.reliefweb.int.