Offensives against Daesh could displace 2.3m Iraqis — UN

BAGHDAD — Upcoming military offensives in Iraq against the Daesh terror group, including an assault on the northern city of Mosul, could displace at least 2.3 million people, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq said on Thursday.

The prediction of such a vast humanitarian emergency creates additional complications for the Iraqi government and its US allies, who have announced plans for offensives to drive Daesh militants this year from most of their Iraqi territory.

More than 3.4 million people across Iraq have already been forced by conflict to leave their homes, according to the United Nations. In the past month, 85,000 people fled Fallujah, an hour’s drive from Baghdad, amid a military campaign that has recaptured large parts of the city from the extremists.

Most of the displaced are from Iraq’s minority Sunni community, raising concerns among officials that US-backed military gains against Daesh will not bring stability to Iraq more than 13 years after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.

Daesh fighters swept through much of northern and western Iraq two years ago and declared a caliphate to rule over territory there and in neighbouring Syria.

The extremists have lost ground in recent weeks to a number of enemies on several fronts in both countries, with the main battles still looming for the caliphate’s two de facto capitals, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.

Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, told Reuters in an interview that at least 430,000 more people could be displaced this year in Anbar, Iraq’s sprawling desert province stretching west from Fallujah to the Syrian border.

Government forces have retaken several cities in Anbar from Daesh in the past six months and are still pressing up the Euphrates river valley towards the border town of Qaim.

Grande said another 830,000 people would be displaced along “the Mosul corridor”, stretching more than 100km from northern Salahuddin province towards the Daesh stronghold.

In Mosul itself, by far the largest city under the militants’ control, the worst case scenario could see 1 million people displaced, said Grande.

“We’re literally talking in just a few months about doubling the number of families who are displaced in the country,” she said. “We’re trying to pre-position supplies and develop contingencies for all of those areas and we’re doing so with 30 per cent of the appeal that we’ve asked for.”