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The organization Save the Children said thousands of children are forced to live among unexploded bombs, dead bodies and rubble, after the closure of camps for displaced people in Iraq.

Thousands of children and their families are forced to live in badly damaged houses in abandoned areas with unexploded bombs, dead bodies and rubble, after the sudden closure of several camps for displaced people in Iraq, said Save the Children in a statement.

The organization said its teams spoke to parents who had been forced to leave the camps. They told harrowing accounts of finding unexploded bombs and corpses in buildings and under rubble in the areas they now reside in.

"Families are in urgent need of basic services such as electricity, clean and safe drinking water, food and transport," the organization said.

Save the Children shared the story of Ali (not his real name), 47, a father of four who returned to Mosul from Yahyawa camp in Kirkuk.

"When we came back here, the area wasn't cleared; there were explosives. I brought down an unexploded bomb from the rooftop of my house.

Children were holding bullets but didn't know what they were.

My son came to me with an unexploded grenade in his hand. He said, 'Father, what is this?'

People also found a corpse in one of the destroyed houses. This area was the last shelter for ISIS in Ninewa, so most of our houses were destroyed during the conflict. Our children are not safe here. They need safety, they need awareness about landmines and unexploded bombs, mental health support, toys, winter clothes and food," Ali said.

Save the Children said, "The camp closures are part of the return of around 250,000 people to their areas of origin, including 48,000 people who will be affected by camp closures before the end of November."

Some of the 303 families who were moved out of the Yahyawa camp arrived in Mosul, Eiyadiah and Tal Afar in Ninewa governorate, "only to discover there was no safe shelter".

Yahyawa camp used to shelter nearly 2,000 people, including around 1,000 children.

According to Save the Children's volunteers who were forced from the camps as well, families are particularly worried about girls getting kidnapped. With winter approaching, families face spending the harshest season without adequate shelter or heating.

"There are many risks to children's lives here, such as explosives, rubble, COVID-19, scarcity of food, dead bodies and skulls among the rubble, and the cold winter," said Shahad (not his real name), who volunteered with Save the Children in Yahyawa camp before it was closed.

"What's happening now is deeply concerning," said Save the Children's Country Director in Iraq, Ishtiaq Mannan.

"Up to 49% of the affected people are children who have lived in difficult camp conditions for over three years, and are now forced to live in places no child should live in: in the midst of debris and among dead bodies. This is a desperate situation for thousands of children in the middle of a pandemic, made worse by the looming start of winter. This is why we are calling on the government to provide alternative shelter for families who do not wish to return to their areas of origin," he said.

The organization is calling on the international community to work with the Iraqi government to come to a long-term plan for the closures of the camps in line with international standards to ensure the protection of vulnerable families and children.

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Save the Children: Kids in Iraq live among unexploded bombs - InfoMigrants

Mosul 30 November 2020: Dr. Salah El Hajj Hassan, Representative of the Food and Agriculture (FAO) Organization of the United Nations in Iraq accompanied by FAO lead technical team, met on Monday with Mr. Najm Al-Jubouri Governor of Nineveh.

The discussion focused on FAO activities and programs in the Governorate, as well as the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and availability of water resources. Dr. Elhajj Hassan presented to the Governor FAOs EU funded projects to support the recovery of agricultural livelihoods through revitalization of food production, value chains, income generation and secure irrigation water through the rehabilitation of Al-Jazeera Irrigation system in Nineveh. Dr. El Hajj Hassan thanked the European Union for their support to the agriculture sector in Iraq and convey the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Ms. Irena Vojkova's greetings to Mr. Al-Jubouri; he also stated, Through these projects, FAO will provide the necessary support to improve the agriculture sector that will positively impact all of Iraq.

H.E. Mr. Al-Jubouri discussed ways of enhancing and strengthening cooperation and coordination with FAO. He praised FAO's role in advancing the agricultural sector in Nineveh Governorate and called on the organization to provide more support to the governorate. At the end of the meeting, the Governor thanked the EU for their generous support to develop the agriculture sector in Nineveh and FAO in Iraq. He expressed his willingness and readiness for full cooperation for the development of the agricultural sector in Nineveh Governorate.

The visit marks the distribution of wheat seeds in support of farmers in Nineveh under this EU funded project, with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Governorate of Nineveh. This distribution is planned to empower the farming community in the governorate and increase availability of food staples, especially following the severe damage caused by the latest military operations.

"I am delighted to see that, thanks to the strong collaboration between FAO and the national and local authorities, distribution of inputs to farmers is starting in Nineveh under this EU funded intervention", said Mr. Martin Huth, the EU Ambassador to Iraq. "I strongly believe that the agriculture and the agri-food sectors have a great potential for the diversification of the economy in Iraq, and restoring the historical agricultural capacities of the Nineveh region is key to such development. In a time where the country has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, livelihoods have been affected and many families have seen increased needs in food security in a region already struggling from past years insecurity. I do hope that the roll out of these activities can quickly help farmers in the long-awaited recovery.

For more information, please contact:Mrs. Lubna AlTarabishi, +964 7740804002Email: Lubna.altarabishi@fao.org

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FAO and the European Union support the recovery of agricultural livelihoods in Northern Iraq [EN/AR] - Iraq - ReliefWeb

USAID is supporting the return of displaced populations from ethnic and religious minorities through an integrated, multi-sectoral approach that tailors services to the unique needs of the communities that call this region home.

Context

The occupation of the so-called Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) left the Ninewa governorate in a state of ruin, with significant destruction to housing, essential services and other infrastructure in many areas. The severe living conditions, as well as continued security concerns and loss of livelihood,, have impeded members from persecuted ethnic and religious minorities from safely returning, thereby contributing to a continuation of protracted displacement for these and other populations.

USAID RESPONSE

USAID is supporting the return of displaced populations from ethnic and religious minorities in Ninewa Plain and western Ninewa through an integrated, multi-sectoral approach that tailors services to the unique needs of historically Christian, Yazidi, and other minority communities that call this region home. The project includes activities to build livelihoods, community peacebuilding, education, and psychosocial services. USAID also is helping to rehabilitate destroyed or damaged homes for internally displaced persons (IDPs), including religious and ethnic minorities, and delivers competitive grants to small and medium enterprises through the Enterprise Development Fund to boost business recovery and create jobs.

Achievements to Date

Shelter rehabilitation:

Economic recovery:

Mental health and social cohesion:

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Supporting the return of displaced populations in Ninewa Plain and Western Ninewa - Iraq - ReliefWeb

Mosul dramatizes a 2017 story in The New Yorker that chronicled a self-directed Iraqi SWAT teams efforts to fight the Islamic State. Counting both Cond Nast and the Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo among its producers, this Netflix movie balances admirable ambition (its an American film, but the characters speak Arabic) with the cruder goosing strategies and red-meat dialogue of a revenge picture.

The film, the directing debut of the screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan (Peter Bergs The Kingdom), begins mid-shootout. Kawa (Adam Bessa), a newly minted Iraqi police officer, is nearby when his uncle is killed by Islamic State fighters. The Nineveh SWAT team, headed by Major Jasem (Suhail Dabbach), shows up and kills them, then, after a tense interrogation, extends Kawa an offer to join. The team only takes men who have been wounded by the Islamic State or lost family to them, and Kawa now qualifies.

Mosul follows the group as it navigates violence-torn Mosul on a mysterious mission. (It involves more than simply driving the Islamic State out of the city, though no one is quick to tell Kawa the specifics.) Along the way, the men enjoy a brief respite watching a Kuwaiti soap opera; find safety for one of two young boys whose parents were killed; and engage in an uneasy barter with a Shiite militia force, trading cigarettes for bullets.

Instant death lurks around every corner, and the movie doesnt shy from killing off major characters. But it does play like an odd match of form and content: a story of single-minded humanitarianism framed as a relentless action spectacular.

MosulNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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Mosul Review: In Iraq, This Time Its Personal - The New York Times

Missing in any debate about whether it is wise for the United States to reduce our troop numbers in both Afghanistan and Iraq, as the Trump administration has ordered, down to 2,500 Americans in each country (a number, let it be noted, that is too few to fight and too many to die), is the question members of Congress and policymakers invariably choose to duck: how did we get into the longest war in U.S. history in Afghanistan and the second-longest in Iraq?

Of course, we know, it was in response to Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaida operatives hijacked four commercial U.S. airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000. None of the 19 hijackers was an Afghani their leader was Egyptian and 15 were from Saudi Arabia but Afghanistan had been the attackers' base. Congress overwhelmingly voted to give President George W. Bush, through the authorization of the use of military force, the green light to use force against those responsible for the attacks of 9/11.

By August of 2002, at a national convention of the Veterans of Foreign War, Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, after stating his conviction that Saddam Hussein "will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon," made the case for war: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." Hussein did not have then, and never would have, any "weapons of mass destruction," nor was he ever anywhere remotely close to obtaining nuclear weapons. But the U.S., just seven months later, under false pretenses and disinformation, would send 130,000 Americans into harm's way to invade Iraq.

Ignored was the doctrine stating that the U.S. should commit men and women to combat only as a last resort and only after all policy options have been exhausted and then only 1) when a vital security interest of the nation is at stake; 2) when the U.S. force employed is overwhelming and disproportionate to the force of the enemy; 3) when the mission and the military action are both understood and supported by the American people, and the mission has international support; and 4) when there is a clear and plausible exit strategy for the U.S. troops sent risking their lives.

"War," as the conservative historian Michael Barone has written, "demands equality of sacrifice." The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were the only wars longer than three months since the Mexican-American War in 1846 that the U.S. has fought without a military draft and without a tax increase. There would be no homefront shortages nor civilian sacrifice requested, only Republican administrations enacting massive tax cuts, tilted to the most advantaged, while the costs of the two wars reached an estimated $5 trillion.

In his landmark book on the American infantryman, George Wilson quoted Col. Steve Siegfried, a combat veteran: "Armies don't fight wars. Countries fight wars. I hope to hell we learned that in Vietnam a country fights a war. If it doesn't, then we shouldn't send an army."

But let's be brutally frank: we at home who did not have a loved one in uniform have borne no burden. We have paid no price. These are wars when all the sacrifice and all the suffering which have been considerable have been borne by our fellow Americans who volunteered and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. And 20 years later, there still is no "clear and plausible exit strategy" for the U.S. troops sent to risk their lives. Shame on us.

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Mark Shields: Afghanistan and Iraq: When will we ever learn? - Northern Virginia Daily