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Lifting of Most Restrictions Enable Some Resumption of
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Apr 1, 2008 IOM Press Briefing |
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Lifting of Most Restrictions Enable Some Resumption of Operations - IOM has pre-positioned emergency food items for distribution to two main hospitals in Baghdad's Sadr City area once all movement restrictions are lifted following an end to recent violence between Iraqi government forces and Mehdi Army militiamen. Food baskets will also be delivered if needed to the neighbourhoods of Qadimiya and Shulla which are still under curfew. In addition, IOM is procuring food and non-food items for immediate distribution to hospitals in some of Iraq's southern governorates including Basra, Wassit, Qadissiya and Thi Qar as well as to any newly displaced people. Although most of the curfews and restrictions in Baghdad and the southern governorates have now been lifted allowing schools, shops and offices to open, IOM staff report a major lack of food and fuel supplies with prices having risen anywhere between 50-600 per cent. The violence in Baghdad and southern Iraq, which claimed around 680 lives and injured another 1,500 people, in addition to the curfews meant food, fuel, water and medical supplies to large parts of Iraq were badly hit. Shops and market stalls were also damaged in the violence, forcing merchants to delay trading until repairs are completed. Meanwhile, IOM and partners are again monitoring internal displacement after several days of curfews and movement restrictions halted operations in the south and Baghdad, the first time in five years. However, any new displacement appears to have been limited by violence, roadblocks and curfews. Nearly 2.8 million Iraqis are now internally displaced, more than 1.5 million of them since February 2006 when the bombing of the Al-Askari shrine in Samara triggered a new displacement crisis in the country. According to the latest update on internal displacement by a group of humanitarian organizations including IOM, more than one million internally displaced people (IDPs) are in need of adequate food and shelter while a similar number are without regular income or employment. Around 300,000 IDPs do not have access to clean water and are in need of other basic services. The report update highlights an urgent need for emergency food distributions to IDPs and host communities unable to access rations through the public distribution system, which is not available in many locations, is often missing food items, and which has not been fully functional for the past three years. |