IOM has distributed humanitarian aid to 127 internally displaced
families living in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The majority of the families (82) were displaced from the
Shikhan district of Ninewa in 2003, when the village where they
were living was taken over by the Kurdish authorities. The rest of
the families were displaced from the Hatra district of Ninewa in
2009 due to a severe drought that affected their crops and
livestock.

Conditions for the families in Mosul are extremely difficult.
They live in makeshift mud and tin houses near a garbage dump, and
have limited access to basic services like healthcare, clean water,
and education for their children. To provide for themselves, many
of the families have resorted to scavenging through the nearby dump
for plastic and scrap metal to sell.

On July 21, IOM, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) conducted a joint assessment of
the settlement to determine the most immediate needs of the
families living there. It was found that the families were in need
of basic supplies to protect their homes against the elements and
improve their living conditions.

Following the assessment, IOM dispatched trucks from its
emergency warehouse in the neighbouring governorate of Erbil and
implemented a direct distribution of relief items for the families.
The distribution took place in coordination with UNHCR and the
local authorities in Ninewa.

With the supplies they received – including plastic
sheeting, hygiene kits and gas stoves – the families will be
able to repair their homes and make their situation more bearable.
IOM plans to continue working with the families to provide
humanitarian and developmental assistance.

Due to the high levels of violence and its location along the
disputed internal boundaries in the north of Iraq, there have been
significant and ongoing displacements and return flows in the
Ninewa Governorate. An estimated 7 per cent of the internal
displacement in Iraq following the 2006 bombing of the Samarra
Al-Askari Mosque originated in Ninewa, and internally displaced
persons (IDPs) from Ninewa make up 46 per cent of all
IDPs in the north of Iraq. IOM has assessed approximately 13,000 of
19,000 families displaced since 2006.

Funding for IOM's emergency distributions is provided by USAID's
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

For more information, please contact:

Rex Alamban

IOM Iraq

Tel: +962 6 565 96 60

Email: "mailto:ralamban@iom.int">ralamban@iom.int