Thousands of Iraqi civilians flee Fallujah amid clashes

Schembri said the humanitarian situation in Anbar province following the Fallujah operation is potentially “catastrophic”.

Three days of fighting has left more than 30,000 people displaced from the city, in addition to the more than 32,000 who were already uprooted from Fallujah since the outset of the army offensive, the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement on Sunday.

“The estimated total number of displaced from Fallujah in just the last three days is now at a staggering 30,000 people”, the NRC said in a statement.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said up to 84,000 people had been forced to flee their homes since the start of the government offensive against the Daesh bastion almost a month ago.

Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilisation Units have been attacking ISIL fighters district by district in recent days. ISIL fighters, however, still hold roughly 20 percent of the city and are entrenched on its northern districts.

“There are thousands without any tents, without any shelter, they have slept overnight out in the open, ” said Karl Schembri with the Norwegian Refugee Council, an worldwide humanitarian group.

“Hundreds of families who reached the displacement camps in Amariyat Al Fallujah, Habaniya Tourist City and Khaldiya were still waiting in the scorching heat to receive tents during the day”.

An Iraqi army commander, speaking with Rudaw, said that most of the streets and alleys of the town have been wired with bombs. The agency estimates that up to 150,000 displaced people may soon be in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

“We obtained victory. In this light, I congratulate the Iraqi people”, said Brig Gen. Satar Jabbar.

Over the past three days, the United Nations says that almost ten thousand families have fled Fallujah amid the heavy fighting.

“We implore the Iraqi government to take charge of this humanitarian disaster unfolding on our watch”.

“We need the Iraqi government to take a leading role in providing for the needs of the most vulnerable civilians who have endured months of trauma and terror”, Mr Muflahi said.

“Let us also remind the global donor community of its responsibility towards the Iraqi people, who have been failed time and again by all the wrong policies and interventions”.

Although the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced the “liberation of Fallujah” from ISIS earlier this week, U.S. officials and local sources said that ISIS is still in control of several districts inside the city.

Nasr Muflahi from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said aid workers were struggling to provide food, water and medicine to people sleeping in the open in hopelessly overloaded camps outside the city.