UN fears another million will be displaced from Mosul

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded more than 100,000 Iraqis displaced from Mosul and its outskirts since March, Anadolu reported on Friday. The city has been under Daesh control for more than two years.

Monitors say that this statistic raises fears of the displacement of another million people internally or externally in Iraq’s second largest city when government forces start their battle to expel Daesh. The figures released by UNHCR this week show that 43,000 people have left Mosul since March; a further 66,000 have fled from neighbouring Shurqat since last month.

Although Daesh has controlled Mosul since June 2014, Iraqi government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga have succeeded in liberating small pockets on the outskirts of the city.

Supported by the US-led international coalition, the Iraqi army has been carrying out operations to expel Daesh from Iraqi cities, starting with Shurqat. The intention there was to cut supply routes to the extremists.

Across Iraq, the UN has reported, more than 3.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes since 2014, when Daesh’s power started to increase dramatically.