UN chief pleads for more aid for Mosul civilians

“We don’t have the resources that are necessary to support these people and we don’t have the international solidarity that is needed,” Antonio Guterres said.

The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres visits displaced Iraqis who fled Mosul at the Hasan Sham camp in Khazer, Iraq, on March 31, 2017. Suhaib Salem / Reuters

Hasan Sham camp, Iraq //UN chief Antonio Guterres appealed yesterday for more aid for the people of Mosul, as he visited a camp for Iraqis displaced by the battle to retake the second city from ISIL.

Iraq is nearly six months into the operation to oust the militant group from its most populous bastion – a battle that has sparked major humanitarian concerns.

More than 200,000 civilians have fled ISIL-held west Mosul since February, while the fighting has taken a devastating toll among the hundreds of thousands more trapped in the

battleground.

“We don’t have the resources that are necessary to support these people and we don’t have the international solidarity that is needed,” Mr Guterres said.

“Unfortunately, our programme here is only funded at 8 per cent. That shows how limited our resources are. These people have suffered enormously, and they go on suffering. We need more solidarity from the international community.”

The former Portuguese prime minister said there were not enough resources available to provide acceptable living conditions for the people of Mosul or for the reconciliation efforts that needed to follow when the city was fully recaptured.

Whether or not real reconciliation occurs in Mosul and elsewhere will play a major role in determining whether Iraq moves towards stability or further violence.

Mr Guterres is on the second day of a visit to Iraq after meeting top officials, including prime minister Haider Al Abadi, on Thursday.

When he began his visit in Baghdad, he called for the protection of civilians to be the “absolute priority”, after the battle for Mosul resulted in numerous civilian deaths and widespread privation.

The UN said last month that about 600,000 civilians were still in west Mosul, 400,000 of them trapped in siege-like

conditions in the Old City.

Remaining in the city has posed deadly danger to residents, with the UN human rights office saying more than 300 civilians were killed in west Mosul in little over a month.

Gunfire, shelling, bombs and air strikes have all taken their toll. Baghdad has sought to blame ISIL for the deaths.

Col Joe Scrocca, a spokesman for the US-led coalition against ISIL, has also accused the militants of trying to provoke strikes that would kill civilians “to take advantage of the public outcry and the terror”.

Coalition member Belgium has opened an investigation into the suspected involvement of its warplanes in strikes that killed civilians in Mosul in two incidents, said Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the prosecutors.

* Agence France-Presse