Iraq - Since the Mosul offensive to retake Iraq’s second city from militants began on 17 October 2016, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix has tracked 22,217 families (133,302 individuals) displaced from the fighting.

After a two-week lull in fighting, Iraq’s military and security forces launched their second offensive against ISIL in Mosul last Thursday (29 December 2016) pushing from three directions into eastern districts where the battle has been deadlocked.

Iraqi forces have retaken 40 of Mosul’s 60 districts (60 percent of the city) since the operations begun, but have yet to enter the western side of the city where an estimated 700,000 civilians are estimated to be trapped in the city largely inaccessible to humanitarians, while sheltering from the fighting, or waiting for a favourable time to flee.

The Emergency Site at Al-Qayara Airstrip, established by IOM in cooperation with the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoMD), is now hosting more than 13,164 internally displaced persons (IDPs) – or 2,295 families – occupying the 2,400 plots ready with hygienic facilities.

More than three quarters of displaced families are in camps and emergency sites operated by the government, IOM and other UN agencies and partners, while the remainder are sheltering in and out of camp, with host communities, sheltering in private settings or public buildings. On Thursday (5 January), IOM reported over 200 families arrived at the Haj Ali camp. These are the first IDPs to arrive in Haj Ali (IOM constructed camp with MoDM support). "The humanitarian needs are severe among displaced families in and out of camps," said Hala Jaber, an IOM press officer based in Erbil, Iraq.

To assist Iraqis displaced by Mosul operations, IOM is providing critical humanitarian aid, including shelter, winter emergency household items, health and psychosocial services for more than 240,000 people in newly retaken areas, as well as for those in camps and emergency sites.

Over two days this week IOM distributed 40 litres of fuel to each of 1,500 families in Qayyarah. Last week, IOM distributed fuel to 'out of camp' IDPs in Nimrud.  At that location, 300 families apiece received 200-liter barrels of kerosene, fuel meant to see them through the two months of winter.

Many said they had not received any fuel since their displacement and had been reduced to cooking on wood for lack of kerosene. So far, amongst other items IOM has distributed blankets (131,298 units), mattresses (77,688), carpets (12,948), kitchen sets (12,948), gas stoves (12,948), heaters (20,668), rechargeable lanterns (21,883) and jerry cans (12,948)  since the Mosul military offensive started on October 17.

According to IOM’s DTM data between 29 December and 5 January, an increase of 2,657 new IDP families (15,942 individuals) was recorded. Approximately 88 percent of the currently displaced IDPs (115,968 individuals) are hosted in camps or emergency sites, with the largest concentration, 98 percent (129,990) in Ninewa governorate.

IOM, clusters and partners continue to urgently prepare camp spaces, services and facilities for vulnerable families in need of safe and dignified shelter.

"In a worst-case scenario, the crisis could displace up to one million people with 700,000 individuals who may need urgent emergency shelter, non-food items, health support and emergency livelihoods," Ms Jaber said.

IOM Iraq Chief of Mission Thomas Lothar Weiss stated, "Thousands of families continue to be displaced by Mosul operations, and new displacements take place on a daily basis. Amid cold winter conditions, these families need immediate assistance. In cooperation with the Government of Iraq and humanitarian partners IOM is pleased to be providing shelter, fuel, non-food items, health care, and other forms of life-saving assistance. However efforts must be expanded to provide continued support, and for the thousands more families who we expect to be affected by the ongoing crisis."

For further information please contact IOM Iraq.

Hala Jaber, Tel. +964 751 740 1654, Email: hjaberbent@iom.int or

Sandra Black, Tel. +964 751 234 2550, Email: sblack@iom.int

After Surviving Intense Fighting, Families Try Entrepreneurship with Rotisserie Chicken

By Hala Jaber

Qayyarah – Just one month ago, the erected tents in IOM’s Emergency site along the Qayyarah airstrip stood eerily silent and bare, shuddering from the harsh winter winds. Then came the first 100 families of Iraqi IDPs.

Four weeks later, and Qayyarah’s air strip is home to 2,214 families (13,145 individuals), as the sprawling camp’s population grows with Iraqi IDPs arriving at a steady pace.

The capacity for 10,000 plots is even going through an expansion phase to accommodate an additional 7,500 IDPs. Besides which, IOM’s nearby Hajj Ali camp this week received its first IDPs, 215 families arriving Wednesday. The planned expansion will ensure shelter for over 105,000 individuals, total.

Initially the residents here came in shock struggling with their displacement and adjustment to camp life. But a few weeks later, IDPs in Qayyarah are showing a talent for innovative and shrewdness, turning profits – literally, with roasted chicken – by providing missing services to thousands of displaced in the camp.

With many restricted from leaving their camps – and thus unable to find to find jobs outside – there are a few outlets for those with an entrepreneurial spirit. Chickens, for example.

Mohammed and Hussam, are two such entrepreneurs. Every day they eye each other across the dirt road that separates their competing chicken rotisserie stalls.

Come mid-morning and the chicken spits lined up with 20 birds each, are turning brown their skins crispy the smell of the roasting wafting through as they prepare for the killer sell. The number of chickens (which arrive frozen, from Turkey) are limited and the demand higher, so it’s on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Mohammed, who is the breadwinner for his family of 12 including grandparents, parents and siblings, gets a share of the net profit from the Iraqi businessman outside the camp who supplies him with the goods, gas and rotisserie.

It is good money for the 21-year-old who also sells shawarma chicken sandwiches on pita loaves.  An assistant writes down the orders as people, those who can afford the price 3,500 Iraqi dinars per bird.

It is said that music is the food of soul and for this is no different for the Iraqi IDP youth in Qayyarah.

After two years of being banned by ISIS from listening to music, watching television and of any form of entrainment, most are eager to catch up on the latest releases including Iraqi oldies and folk songs. The wait-time may be painful, given the intermittent Internet and slow wi-fi, but for the youths with nothing better to do, having their own music and photos of loved ones and memories of home are worth the wait.

Need music or photos downloaded on your phone? Then Omar is your vendor. With his ancient old laptop and a rickety small loudspeaker, he blares Iraqi folk songs.  In a nearby stall, two photocopying machines with scanners and printers are busy churning out copies of documents, certificates and other personal effects needed by the IDPs for registration and other tasks.

Necessity being the mother of invention, even children in camp display imagination. Young girls have self-made skipping ropes by attaching cloth and thick ribbons to form a rope and plastic water bottles acting as handles.

Others play jackstones or knuckle bones from the small pebbles used around their tents, while boys nearby busy themselves with a continuous game of duck stones. Women nearby knead and bake dough for bread leaving their men to do the errands around the camp.