“Many people have no money and nowhere to go,” UNHCR said in a news release.
The UN refugee agency ( UNHCR) reported today that a shortage of shelter is a key challenge for many of the hundreds of thousands of people who fled. Local authorities said 300,000 people have sought shelter in the Erbil and Duhok governorates of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, many arriving with little more than the clothes they are wearing. She also said humanitarian access and the safety of aid workers are a “prominent concern given the unpredictable nature of ISIL, and the manner in which it creates insecure and volatile environments, which hinder access and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.” “And I am especially concerned about the risk to vulnerable groups, minorities, women and children.” “I am extremely concerned about the acute vulnerability of civilians caught in the cross-fire, or targeted in direct attacks by armed groups, or trapped in areas under the control of ISIL and their allies,” Pillay said.
More recently, OHCHR received reports of the summary executions of Iraqi army soldiers during the capture of Mosul, and of 17 civilians on one particular street in Mosul City on 11 June.Īddressing everyone fighting in the conflict, the top UN human rights official urged that all feasible precautions be taken to spare civilians from the effects of hostilities, and to respect, protect and meet the basic needs of civilian populations. In March, the Commission of Inquiry on Syria accused ISIL of committing crimes against humanity, in addition to other gross human rights violations, in the Syrian provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo. She warned that ISIL would be under “particular scrutiny” given their “well-documented record of committing grave international crimes in Syria.” Under these circumstances, she said, “murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture constitute war crimes”. Pillay added that she was deeply disturbed by reports that fighters from the groups, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), and prisoners they had released from jails in Mosul and provided with arms “have been actively seeking out – and in some cases killing –soldiers, police and others, including civilians, whom they perceive as being associated with the Government.”
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“The full extent of civilian casualties is not yet known,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, “but reports suggest the number of people killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, and the number of wounded is said to be approaching 1,000.”
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