“The situation is distressing. People, right now, are in trouble. We are hearing reports of parents struggling to feed their children and to heat their homes,” said the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Lise Grande in a press release issued Saturday.
“The battle hasn’t started but already there is a humanitarian crisis.”
The UN estimates there are 750,000 civilians living under ISIS rule, besieged in west Mosul, with little access to basic necessities. The city is surrounded by Iraqi security forces and few goods are able to get into the city.
“Informants report that nearly half of all food shops have closed. Bakeries throughout the area have run out of fuel and many can no longer afford to purchase costly flour,” the UN stated in its press release. “Prices of kerosene and cooking gas have skyrocketed and many of the most destitute families are burning wood, furniture, plastic or garbage for cooking and heating.”
In mid-January, the UN announced they were trying to get as much aid into western Mosul as possible in anticipation of a siege. Grande said at the time that her agency was holding discussions with Iraqi and coalition forces about options to get supplies into western Mosul including airdrops or via the Tigris River.
The situation has been further complicated by security concerns in east Mosul, which the Iraqi forces declared liberated in late January. ISIS has, however, continued to carry out suicide bombings, firing mortars across the river, and using armed commercial drones to kill and terrorize the population on the left bank.
The UN temporarily suspended aid operations in east Mosul this week because of the heavy civilian casualties there, “until security improves,” said Grande.
In west Mosul, predictions for the military offensive are that it may take five or six months. The city is more densely populated, with many narrow streets and alleyways. On Friday, Reuters reported that ISIS militants were developing networks of tunnels and passageways, knocking holes between houses in order to move around the city undetected.
"What we expect is this is going to be a very, very difficult fight and very dangerous,” coalition spokesperson Col. John Dorrian told Rudaw TV earlier this week.
How exactly the battle will pan out is unknown, but the UN is preparing for all possibilities.
“We don’t know what will happen during the military campaign but we have to be ready for all scenarios. Tens of thousands of people may flee or be forced to leave the city. Hundreds of thousands of civilians might be trapped—maybe for weeks, maybe for months,” said Ms. Grande. “Protecting civilians is the highest priority in a situation like this—nothing is more important.”
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