Humanitarians in northern Iraq are scrambling to prepare for what they expect could be the worst crisis in the country in years, as up to 1 million civilians flee fighting around the second city of Mosul.
But uncertainties about the situation abound, complicating preparations and limiting aid groups’ abilities to plan for all but the most immediate basic needs of those impacted by the fighting. U.N. agencies and relief organizations are ready with food and survival kits for hundreds of thousands of people, but more robust responses including semipermanent shelter, health care, education, psychosocial support, and other needs may be months off. Already, operations are massively underfunded.
Aid organizations have been planning and prepositioning supplies since February in preparation for a military operation, begun this week, to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group. The U.N. expects as many as 200,000 people will be displaced in just the first three weeks of the operation.
About the author
Elizabeth Dickinson@dickinsonbeth
Elizabeth Dickinson is a former associate editor at Devex. Based in the Middle East, she has previously served as Gulf correspondent for The National, assistant managing editor at Foreign Policy, and Nigeria correspondent at The Economist. Her writing also appeared in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Politico Magazine, and Newsweek, among others.
