As the humanitarian crisis continues to extend it's roots into the Iraqi soil, with economical, social and political manifestations, the unnoticed vulnerable IDPs families continue to raise their voices claiming the right to go home where their houses, schools and workplaces. Our emergency food parcels distribution activities in Baghdad, Erbil, Samara, Hadeetha and khanaqin aimed to alleviate the burden on the IDPs families settled in these cities with no access to Public Distribution System (PDS) either due to war-related technical difficulties that prevented the staff of Iraqi MoT from reaching them or due to their lack of knowledge on how to access PDS as IDPs. We had delivered more than 7000 food parcels till now but we are facing a…

Mark Bradshaw is War Child UK’s Programme Development Coordinator for Asia/Middle East. He visited Erbil this month to help our team there start a project and assist in identifying children's needs across the region. It’s only been a few weeks since the extreme IS violence displaced hundreds of thousands of families across Iraq. Many fled to the relative calm of the Kurdistan region in the north but as international attention begins to shift away from this humanitarian disaster, War Child UK continues to find children in urgent need of food, water, shelter and protection. “Life here is like a prison.” Some now live in camps run by the UN; housed in basic tents exposed to the harsh summer sun. Others…

Nabil thanks all those people who have supported Caritas around the world in delivering aid: "We felt that we aren’t alone and this has given us new strength to support the displaced people despite all the difficulties."

More than 1 million people have fled their homes in northern and central Iraq as Sunni Muslim extremists calling themselves Islamic State have seized Ninewa, Salah Al-Din and Diyala provinces. Many of those who have fled are Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims. They have been singled out for attacks. The conflict has led to the closure of Caritas Iraq’s centres in Qaraqosh, Bartilla and Alqosh. Many of the Caritas Iraq staff are now in Erbil supporting distributions to people now housed in church compounds and other centres. Working with CRS, Caritas Iraq has also begun providing aid in the Dohuk and Zakho close to the Turkey and Syria borders. There are hundreds of thousands of people in need there –…

The humanitarian situation in northern and western parts of Iraq is dire. The untold suffering of minority groups as a result of escalating violence and attacks is unacceptable and the violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws is despicable. This must be stopped immediately. There are reports of gross human rights violations, especially committed against women and children, which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.As international faith based humanitarian and development organisations and networks, we are utterly shocked at the horrific wave of attacks that has so far led to the killing of many and left hundreds of thousands more homeless, desperate and in flight. We are further concerned and saddened by the many cases of…

This article is based on an open letter to Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako of Babylon and Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, President of Caritas Iraq. It’s with great sorrow that we must witness destructive violence in Iraq. It’s with aching hearts that we observe the massive displacement of 1.2 million people. Most of them are civilians trying to escape appalling atrocities in the hope of saving their lives and their families. It grieves us to see images of people who have been robbed of every possession. They have been left with no means to buy food or attend to their basic needs. We know that many people have lost their lives in flight, such as 40 children who died from lack of…