The UN’s humanitarian aid coordinator for Iraq says aid providers are bracing for the possible evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians as Iraqi forces prepare for the “imminent” start of three operations against Islamic State holdouts.
Lise Grande says teams are moving to areas near the expected operations in Tal Afar near Mosul; Hawija in Kirkuk province to the southeast and the western Anbar province.
She says they were briefed in recent days about military “mustering points” and planned evacuation routes.
Grande told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva that while the fighting is over in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, “the humanitarian crisis in Mosul is not” over.
She says some 3.3 million people remain displaced from their homes across Iraq, including 700,000 people from Mosul alone.
