UN refugee agency hands out aid to those uprooted from Mosul

The UN refugee agency distributed aid today to dozens of Iraqi families uprooted from their homes in and around the city of Mosul, warning that their needs will only increase as winter progresses and temperatures continue to fall below freezing.

UNHCR aid workers handed out kerosene heaters, jerry cans, plastic sheets and hygiene kits to about 30 families. Unlike in some areas inside Mosul where chaos erupted when hundreds of civilians overwhelmed aid trucks, the people lined up to get the aid in a camp in the town of Khazir, about 30 kilometers east of Mosul.

"We have received these items. But we need heating oil," said Haider Mahmoud Ahmed.
 

"They're here. Blankets, a heater, but we don't have water, drinking water. All the tankers around here are empty. There is no water in them. We want them to be filled so we can live," Ahmed added. "Yesterday we were freezing. There is no heating oil."

Some displaced are still haunted by what they experienced before leaving for the camp.

"It was raining mortars on us. There were snipers. And a rocket landed in the middle of the front yard. Inside the garage," said Abdullah Ahmed Saleh.

The UNHCR's senior public information officer, Caroline Gluck, said the aid items are part of emergency assistance "for families who've literally fled for their lives. Often most don't have anything apart from what they're wearing."

She added that temperatures during nighttime fall to below freezing and "it's really tough for these families."

The families are among the nearly 5,500 people living in tents in a camp east of Mosul, where the battle to retake the city from the Islamic State group is underway. So far, nearly 70,000 civilians have fled, according to U.N.

Inside eastern Mosul, civilians are cutting down trees and shrubs to use the wood for cooking and heating. While the area has largely been under Iraqi army control for nearly a month, electricity has not yet been restored and intermittent sniper fire and car bombs have prevented aid groups from delivering supplies to civilians trapped near the front lines.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are estimated to still be inside Mosul as the Iraqi government has encouraged residents to stay put to avoid massive humanitarian displacement.