UNICEF on Sunday said more than 4,000 people have fled areas around Mosul since the massive military operation to retake the Daesh-held city in northern Iraq began.
The UN agency’s Iraq representative, Peter Hawkins, could not provide an exact figure but said at that in at least one refugee camp the conditions for children were “very, very poor.” He said UNICEF teams delivered water, sanitation and other supplies expected to last seven days.
They also provided immunizations against polio and measles, which had not been available during the more than two years that the people lived under IS rule. UNICEF has plans to assist more than 784,000 people, including up to 500,000 children.
Hawkins says children in and around Mosul are at risk of death or injury from the fighting, as well as sexual violence, kidnapping and recruitment by armed groups.
The Mosul offensive involves more than 25,000 Iraqi ground forces as well as US-led coalition aircraft and advisers. It is expected to take weeks, if not months, to drive Daesh from Mosul, which is home to more than a million civilians.
At dawn Sunday, Kurdish forces, who are part of the massive operation, launched a new push on two fronts to the northeast of Mosul, near the town of Bashiqa. Over the last week, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have been battling IS in a belt of mostly uninhabited towns and villages around Mosul, contending with roadside bombs, snipers and suicide truck bombs.

Source: Arab News