US adds millions of dollars to Iraq humanitarian fund

WASHINGTON DC—The United States will provide an additional $56 million in humanitarian fund for Iraqis affected by ongoing violence in the country, State Department Spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday.

The aid was announced by US Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Sarah Sewall at the UN General Assembly event on the humanitarian emergency in Iraq.

“United States is providing more than $56 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Iraqis who have been affected by violence and are in urgent need of help from the international community,” read the statement.

Currently three million Iraqis have been displaced by the war between the Islamic State (ISIS) and Iraqi troops and Shiite militia, the majority of them Sunnis from the center and west of the country who have settled in the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Center warned last week that that the magnitude of the refugee and internally displaced people (IDP) crisis was beyond its ability to handle and urged the international community to lend a hand in assisting the refugees.

“KRG has as exhausted its ability to respond to the ever-growing humanitarian catastrophe. Without a significant increase in funding from the international community and financial transfers from the Government of Iraq, the Kurdistan Region will not be able to contain the humanitarian crisis, and faces exceedingly dire consequences,” said the coordination center.

The US has called the IDP crisis “the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world” and has so far offered nearly $534 million since the start of fiscal year 2014.