UN aid reaches Mosul after two-year absence

The UN children’s agency UNICEF says that humanitarian convoys have entered the Iraqi city of Mosul for the first time in over two years.

“Our teams are moving quickly to provide immediate support to communities affected by the fighting,” said UNICEF Iraq Deputy Representative Hamida Ramadhani in a press release put out by the organisation.

Ramadhani noted that the UN’s World Food Programme and Population Fund (UNFPA) had also been involved in aid delivery to the Islamic State group-held city which is currently under assault by Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces, supported by a US-led international coalition constructing airstrikes in the area.

A 14-vehicle convoy which included eight cargo trucks filled with aid, arrived in the Gogachly neighbourhood of eastern Mosul at around 9.30 on Sunday morning, revealed Ramadhani.

Aid delivered through the convoy includes water purification tablets, high energy biscuits, jerry cans, buckets, hygiene items such as soap, toothpaste and baby supplies, including diapers. Supplies are set to cater for a total of 30,000 people  for a month.

Despite ongoing fighting in nearby areas, including artillery fire, the distribution, said the UN, was completed within six hours.

Since operations against IS in Mosul began in late October a total of 56,000 people have been displaced from Mosul and the surrounding environs, with as many as 1.5 million people thought to remain trapped inside the city.

Aid organisations have expressed concern that civilians in Mosul could be used by IS as human-shields and amid shortages of space in temporary camps set up to accommodate those displaced from the city have warned that a humanitarian “disaster” could be imminent.

IS seized control of Mosul in October 2014 during an unprecedented and brutal campaign that saw the group seize territory totalling roughly one third of Iraq in 2014.

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