180,000 face specter of famine in western Mosul: WFP

By Amir al-Saadi

BAGHDAD (AA) - The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has voiced concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in western Mosul’s Old City, “where as many as 180,000 people are reportedly hungry and living in miserable conditions”.

In a report released Tuesday from its office in Erbil, the WFP pointed to “worrying signs of an increase in the rate of malnutrition among newly displaced children from western Mosul”.

The report goes on to assert that 9 percent of young children in the Salamiya 1 camp -- located near Mosul -- suffer from malnutrition, “more than double the rate identified among internally displaced children from Mosul in January”.

The humanitarian situation in western Mosul “has deteriorated substantially and families are arriving at camps and mustering points terrified, tired and hungry,” WFP Iraq Representative and Country Director Sally Haydock is quoted as saying in the report.

“In extreme cases, people cannot access food at all,” Haydock adds. “We appeal to all parties to the conflict to facilitate immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to all Iraqis in need of assistance.”

“Since the start of the initial Mosul offensive in October 2016,” the report goes on to state, “the WFP has reached more than 1.6 million people with ready-to-eat food covering their immediate needs.”

According to recent estimates, more than 700,000 people have fled the war-battered city since the Iraqi army launched wide-ranging operations last year to recapture it from the Daesh terrorist group.

This includes an estimated 500,000 from western Mosul, where heavy fighting has continued to rage since February.