The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Tuesday warned an ongoing funding shortage could leave as many as a million refugees across Iraq and Syria without proper help during winter.
The UNHCR has been trying to prepare displaced populations in the two countries for the coming winter, but the agency is increasingly concerned by a funding shortfall of $58.45 million, Xinhua Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman, as telling reporters at a daily news briefing.
"Right now, UNHCR estimates that the winter shortfall will affect some 990,000 people, mainly displaced people in Iraq and Syria," Haq said.
Over the past several months, Iraq has been convulsed by increasing instability amid an ongoing offensive by the Islamic State(IS) and its affiliates, unleashing wave after wave of refugees.
Since January 2014, an estimated 1.9 million people have been displaced across Iraq as they fled the violence and persecution of IS recent offensives.
