A year on from battle, Mosul’s healthcare system is still in ruins

UNICEF has said more than 750,000 children in Mosul do not have sufficient access to basic health care. Less than 10 percent of health facilities in Ninewah province, where Mosul is the capital, are properly functioning.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday appealed for $17 million (€13.8 million) to support the rebuilding of health facilities for children in Iraq, following three years of violence that have “devastated health facilities.”

In a statement, UNICEF said, “As many as 750,000 children in [the major northern city of] Mosul and surrounding areas are struggling to access basic health services.”

Read more: ‘Islamic State’ targets children to punish parents in Mosul, says UN

What UNICEF says:

Less than 10 percent of health facilities in Ninewah governorate [where Mosul is the capital city] are functioning at full capacity.

Those that are operational are stretched to breaking point.

More than 60 health facilities have repeatedly come under attack since violence escalated in 2014.

Access to basic health services for children and families has been severely disrupted.

 

 

 

 

Mosul offensive : Crossing the Tigris in Mosul

 Residents of Mosul cross the Tigris River on small wooden boats after flooding made all the bridges in the Iraqi city impassable.

Fighting the flames : Burning oil wells in Iraq

Six months after ISIL fighters torched oil wells in Qayyarah, Iraqi fire crews are still battling the flames. Like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster, a vast and pervasive darkness hangs over Qayyarah, as toxic black smoke billows from the burning wells. Oil has been a key source of income for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, making Qayyarah an important strategic town. Its recapture last August by Iraqi forces was a significant gain in their advance towards Mosul.

Before fleeing, ISIL fighters used explosives to torch several oil wells, initially as a defensive measure to thwart coalition air strikes. But as the group began losing ground to Iraqi forces, they adopted a scorched-earth strategy, destroying as many oil wells as possible. The operation to extinguish the fires, now in its fifth month, is proving to be a difficult, dangerous and time-consuming task. Teams of firefighters, machine operators, mechanics, engineers and safety experts have come from across the country to join the effort – but regardless of when the flames are extinguished, the human and environmental costs will probably linger for years.

The grave of Army Captain Humayun Khan lies at Arlington Cemetery

The grave of Army Captain Humayun Khan lies at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. 

A girl walks past the site after a suicide car bomb attack in Iraq

A girl walks past the site after a suicide car bomb attack at the shopping area of Karrada, a largely Shi’ite district, in Baghdad, Iraq.

Photo Islamic State strikes Baghdad

Nearly 120 people were killed and 200 wounded in two bombings overnight in Baghdad, most of them in a busy shopping area as residents celebrated Ramadan.

Inside Falluja after Islamic State

Iraqi special forces launched an operation on one of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) most emblematic bastions, Fallujah, as the group counter-attacked in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria. In January 2014, it became the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIL – also known as ISIS – and it subsequently overran wide areas of the north and west of Iraq, declaring a caliphate that included seized territory in Syria. Army units advanced to the southern entrance to Fallujah, “steadily advancing” under air cover from the US-led coalition, according to a military statement read out on state TV. A Reuters TV crew at the scene said explosions and gunfire were ripping through Fallujah’s southern Naimiya district. The offensive is causing alarm among international aid organisations over the humanitarian situation in the city, where more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped with limited access to water, food and healthcare. Fallujah is the second-largest Iraqi city under control of ISIL, after Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about two million.

Iraq : Fallujah’s displaced endure ‘inhuman’ conditions

Iraq: Fallujah’s displaced endure ‘inhuman’ conditions.

Displaced Iraqis, who fled the government’s operation against the Islamic State (IS) group in the city of Fallujah, carry basic food items in a camp in Khaldiyeh,  

Fallujah: Humanitarian disaster unfolding as 30,000 displaced

Tens of thousands of civilians escaped the city, 50km west of Baghdad, as a major advance by Iraqi forces penetrated central Fallujah in recent days. The aid community has been struggling to cope. Thousands of people suffering from hunger and trauma are stranded in the scorching summer heat with no shelter. “The estimated number of people displaced from Fallujah in just the past three days is 30000,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said. The UN’s refugee agency said up to 84000 people had been forced to flee their homes since the start of the government offensive against the IS bastion nearly a month ago.

“Agencies are scrambling to respond to the rapidly evolving situation. We are bracing ourselves for another large exodus in the next few days. We estimate that thousands of people are still trapped in Fallujah,” the UN Human Rights Council said. “We implore the Iraqi government to take charge of this humanitarian disaster,” Norwegian Refugee Council director for Iraq Nasr Muflahi said. The agency said it could no longer provide assistance and that water rations were nearly exhausted. It cited the case of a newly opened camp in Amriyat al-Fallujah, south of Fallujah, which houses 1800 people but has only one latrine for women.

“We need the Iraqi government to take a leading role in providing for the needs of civilians who have endured months of trauma and terror,” Muflahi said. An Iraqi aid worker at Amriyat al-Fallujah said the resources were inadequate to deal with the scope of the crisis. “Four hundred families have reached my camp in the past four days; they don’t have anything,” said a camp manager, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We were shocked by the number of displaced people and we weren’t prepared to receive them."Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has promised to support Fallujah’s refugees. On Friday night, after Iraqi forces raised the national flag above the main government compound in Fallujah, he declared that the city had been "brought back to the fold”. But hundreds of IS fighters are still holed up in the city’s northern neighbourhoods.

Fallujah Lies In Ruins As Haider al-Abadi Claims ‘Victory’

An Iraqi security forces vehicle is seen on a street in the centre of Falluja, Iraq.