WFP Concerned About Desperate Reports Coming From Families Inside Western Mosul

Published February 27, 2017

ERBIL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation facing families in western Mosul, where more than 750,000 people are living in dire conditions.

While access to reliable information about the conditions inside western Mosul is limited, WFP’s monitoring team and partners have spoken to a number of families inside the city as they assess access and availability of food. Through telephone interviews, many distressed families said that food was unaffordable, while others said they could not access food at all. Due to increased fighting, people are afraid to leave their homes, making it even more difficult to search for essential food items.

“The situation is unbelievable,” reported a 46-year-old man from inside the city. “There is no food, no clean water, no gas for heating, no medicine and no services.”

 

“WFP is monitoring the frontlines and remains ready to provide immediate food assistance as soon as families can be reached safely,” said WFP Iraq Representative and Country Director Sally Haydock. “We are hearing from some families that food has drastically risen in price and is unaffordable. In extreme cases, people cannot access food at all. We appeal to all parties to the conflict to facilitate immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to all Iraqis in need of assistance.”

So far, WFP has provided ready-to-eat food for over 6,000 people who have fled villages to the south of western Mosul. Most have made their way to Hamam Al Alil, Qayyarah Jeda’a and Haj Ali camps. WFP has enough food in stock to cover the immediate needs of 770,000 people who reside in the western Mosul area.

A recent WFP survey has found that food in western Mosul has become scarce as supply lines have been cut, and that prices of all food items have gone up significantly. As most families have been without income for the past two-and-a-half years, many people are struggling to feed their families.

Thanks to contributions from Canada, the European Commission, Germany, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United States, WFP has provided ready-to-eat food for over one million people since the start of the Mosul offensive in October 2016. This support has been provided to all families displaced in camps and those remaining in eastern Mosul, as well as those in retaken areas within the Mosul corridor.

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WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Ingermarie Vennize, WFP/Iraq, Tel. +964 780 9150937
Alexandra Murdoch, WFP / Iraq, Tel. 964 780 915 6119
Abeer Etefa, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +2010 66634352
Dina El-Kassaby, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +2010 15218882
Jane Howard, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 65132321, Mob. +39 346 7600521
Bettina Luescher, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41 22 917 8564, Mob. +41 79 842 8057
Steve Taravella, WFP/Washington DC, Tel. +1 202 6531149, Mob. +1 202 7705993