Following the announcement by International Development Secretary Priti Patel yesterday (Wednesday 12), Christian Aid supports the UK’s decision to provide lifesaving aid to people in Iraq, and to help the millions of Iraqis currently displaced.
As well as emergency relief for people in Mosul, the UK is also providing extra funding to a UN led stabilisation programme that has already helped 200,000 Iraqis return to Mosul.
Máiréad Collins, Advocacy and Programme Officer for Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, said:
“The plight of internally displaced people is often overlooked, their impact globally being less striking than refugees.
“By the end of 2016, over 40 million people were displaced within their own countries, globally, as a result of conflict and violence, with Syria, Iraq and Yemen experiencing 2 million extra displacements in total last year.
“With the operation to retake Mosul from ISIS now at an end, the work to ensure the city and its people’s recovery is successful must now begin. We strongly support the UK’s decision to renovate essential infrastructure such as clinics and schools and to ensure that displaced people are able to reintegrate into their communities in Mosul after such devastation.
“The military operation has created a massive humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 300,000 people displaced, most of whom are staying outside of camps, placing additional strain on an already vulnerable Iraqi population. Nor is this operation the end of ISIS-related displacement in the region. In other areas of Iraq under ISIS control, people are being forced to abandon their homes on a daily basis. The ongoing military operation in Syria to retake Raqaa has likewise created a massive humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands displaced and as many trapped in the city.”
Christian Aid’s partners in Iraq are responding to this crisis. Through its Iraq Crisis Appeal, the development charity has reached more than 250,000 people, with food, clothes, hygiene kits, health services and cash assistance.
Notes to Editors:
1. Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in around 40 countries at any one time. We act where there is great need, regardless of religion, helping people to live a full life, free from poverty. We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance in tackling the root causes of poverty as well as its effects.
2. Christian Aid’s core belief is that the world can and must be changed so that poverty is ended: this is what we stand for. Everything we do is about ending poverty and injustice: swiftly, effectively, sustainably. Our strategy document Partnership for Change explains how we set about this task.
3. Christian Aid is a member of ACT Alliance, a global coalition of more than 130 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development.
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5. For more information about the work of Christian Aid visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk
