Since the beginning of the crisis in July 2014, the number of IDP in Iraq have exceeded 3 million people, of which almost 1,3 million are children. The Kurdish region is currently hosting 40% of IDP; the remainder are divided within the Governorate of Anbar, Baghdad and Kirkuk.
In the areas under the control of Dae’sh, the terrorists are committing gross violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. Among these violations are: systematic murders of civilians, including women and children; kidnappings; rape; sexual enslaving of women and children; recruitment of child soldiers, who are taken from their houses and brought in the Syrian training camps; persistent destruction of places of worship and important heritage sites.
Sadly, as shown by the last UN report on Protection of Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq (July 2015), the members of Iraqi ethnic and religious minorities are the target of an indiscriminate project that aims to destroy, kill or throw them out of the Islamic State controlled areas.
As in the past, Dae’sh militias are committing lots of atrocities and war crimes against the Iraqi Security Forces. Last year’s massacre of Camp Speicher, near Tikrit, was one of the most tragic events since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, the complete details of which have not emerged yet. The massacre was perpetrated in June 2014 and left only 12 survivors. According to them, over 1.700 Iraqi soldiers, most of whom were Shiites, were kidnapped by the terrorists after their Army Officials surrendered and ordered them to run away from the battlefield. The terrorists brought the prisoners to a mass grave site and executed many of them. Other prisoners were decapitated and thrown in Tigris River.
The International Community, the International humanitarian organizations and the NGOs join their forces to support the Iraqi Government in the difficult task of facing the crisis.
Italy is at the forefront of the effort to ease the Iraqi people’s grave humanitarian emergency. Last year, Italy set up an airlift for emergency humanitarian aid through six military flights that carried food and basic necessities in Iraqi Kurdistan for the first wave of IDPs.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has allocated €2,7 millions for tackling the humanitarian emergency in Iraqi Kurdistan. These funds are employed by Italian NGOs operating in Iraqi territory. The intervention is focusing on education and health. Next month, part of the funding allocated in 2015 will be transferred to NGOs that are participating in the selection procedure managed by the Embassy of Italy in Baghdad.
In addition to the bilateral channel, Italy is funding the UN Agencies operating in Iraq. On the multilateral channel, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has allocated € 500.000 to UNICEF for an assistance and support programme to under-aged women that were victims of violences and that belong to religious minorities; € 500.000 to UNHCR for the construction of IDPs camp in Kurdistan; €300.000 to UNESCO for a programme aimed at surveying and safeguarding the cultural and archaeological heritage under the control of Dae’sh.
Last April, the United Nations announced its difficulties to keep all the existing aid programmes working without further funding efforts from the UN member States. While the overall IDPs number increases, almost 80% of the emergency clinics and medical facilities in Iraq, which were managed by the UN, stopped being operative in July 2015, due to the lack of funds.
