BAGHDAD
The number of internally displaced persons in Iraq has increased over the past ten days due to Iraqi military operations against ISIL, an Iraqi government official said on Monday.
“10,000 internally displaced persons have been recorded. The official recorded number at the Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Migrants has increased to 470,000 internally displace persons from four provinces which suffer from a lack of security,” an official from the Iraqi government said.
“The government recorded 470,000 internally displaced persons moving from Diyala, Al Anbar, Saladin and Nineveh provinces to other governorates in the north and south of Iraq,” the deputy of Immigration and Migrants Ministry, Asghar Al-Mosawi, told The Anadolu Agency.
In a previous announcement on Nov. 28, Al-Mosawi said that the official recorded number of internally displaced persons was 460,000.
The figures were recorded as part of a plan to monitor the number of displaced people in provinces witnessing military operations against ISIL.
Iraqi officials believe that the number will increase as more military operations are launched in the four provinces in the upcoming days.
The security situation has quickly deteriorated since June 10, when ISIL took over large swathes of Iraq.
The instability caused masses of people to be displaced from their homes, especially minorities in Nineveh governorate who moved to northern Iraqi governorates.
International relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, along with local organizations, such as the Iraqi Red Crescent and Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Migrants, provide urgent help to fleeing citizens.
However, Iraqi officials have said that the volume of aid offered by UN organizations to the displaced persons does not match the severity of the situation.
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