Islam Times - Humanitarian crisis in Iraq at highest level, UN says

Islam Times - The UN has declared its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, as hundreds of thousands have been displaced due to the ongoing violence fueled by ISIL Takfiris.

Referring to the “scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe,” Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special envoy to Iraq, said on Wednesday that the declaration of a “Level 3 Emergency” would trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of those displaced.

Iraq has faced a brutal offensive by the ISIL across the country’s north and west since early June. The crisis has deteriorated in recent weeks, as the militants swept over new towns in the north, forcing members of the minority Christian and Izadi communities out of their homes.

Tens of thousands of Izadi Kurds escaped to take refuge in the Sinjar Mountain range, becoming trapped for days without food or water.

Mladenov said tens of thousands of people are reportedly still ensnared in Sinjar “with health conditions quickly deteriorating.”

On Tuesday, Adrian Edwards, the spokesman of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said up to 35,000 refugees, mostly Izadi Kurds, had managed to reach Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region via Syria over the past three days.

He added that an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people remained trapped on Sinjar Mountain.

The ISIL terrorists have been committing heinous crimes in the areas they took, including the mass execution of civilians as well as Iraqi army troops and officers.

The Iraqi army is engaged in fierce fighting with the ISIL militants to push them out of the captured areas.