There is a huge humanitarian crisis in Iraq that has been largely overlooked. Millions of people have been displaced and are living as refugees where they cannot work as normal, in areas that do not have the ability to sustain such huge populations, in camps that have been under-supplied. And right now there are hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)-held sections of Mosul who are starving and whose children are suffering from dreadful malnutrition as the fighting grinds on for months as Iraqi forces retake the city — house by house, street by street.
These latest sufferers join the three million internally displaced refugees who are suffering dreadfully as they are unable to work, earn money and feed themselves.
The first wave of Iraqi refugees came from those who fled when Daesh conquered Mosul in June 2014 followed by a second offensive in August that won it large areas of northern Iraq that were home to various minorities and Kurdish control. The vicious mass-killings, enslavement and deportations by Daesh terrified millions of people who moved to avoid such horrors.
But now a second wave of refugees is being created by the Iraqi forces’ counter-attack that has successfully reduced Daesh control to less than 7 per cent of Iraq compared to the 40 per cent it held nearly three years ago.
But the hand-to-hand fighting and re-conquering of towns and cities has taken months of bitter fighting, during which the civilian population either stays put and is forced to share the risks of being involved in the military action, or flees and runs a different risk of ending up in camps where they may or may not be looked after properly.
The people of Iraq need to return to a semblance of their normal lives. They need help to see themselves through this appalling time, but they also need the restoration of a peaceful civilian government that will allow them to settle back into their homes and rebuild their lives.
The immediate task of looking after the millions of internal refugees will be much helped if the government offers an inclusive and broad-based policy of rebuilding society.
For example, it does not help that Iranian-backed militias are so active in the fighting around Mosul and are also taking part in managing the humanitarian challenge. They follow a sectarian approach when giving aid and succour to those suffering, which is exactly what Iraq does not need.
