(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Forced to leave their homes to escape the fierce fighting between the government forces and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), displaced Iraqis are observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan with heartrending feelings of homesickness, nostalgia and bitterness.
As they struggle to cope with the blazing heat at the camp tents, the lack of basics and the rise of prices of almost everything, the desperate Iraqi refugees are missing the joy of Ramadan.
At Abu Ghraib refugee camp, west of Baghdad, displaced Iraqis are jammed in crowded tents under simmering heat of the summer.
"We live in this tent under scorching heat of over 45 degrees Celsius," Assem Fahdawi, father of five children who fled with his family after ISIL's recent control of their city Al-Ramadi, told KUNA.
"Six families, living in contiguous tents at the camp, are sharing only one butane gas canister to prepare their fast-breaking meal," he said "The situation in the camp is intolerable." He added that the shortage of basic needs at the camp have forced him to fast even before the start of Ramadan to save what the small amount of food he gets for his children.
"In fact I decided to fast 15 days ahead of Ramadan, to secure what I get from food for my kids," he said.
He noted that his family and the other five neighboring families are sharing a poor fast-breaking meal of lentil soup.
Fahdawi remembers the joy of previous months of Ramadan in his city where he used to hold bustling Ramadan banquets in rotation with his neighbors and relatives. "We used to hold fast-breaking banquets at the Diwan, traditional gathering building, of a different clan each day. We did not expect that one day something like that will happen in Ramadi," he said referring to the ISIL control of the city.
"Now, we do not find cold water or enough food or even a protection from the high temperature," he regrets.
His wife Um Zaher bitterly remembers when she and her family used to celebrate the joyful spirit of Ramadan in their hometown.
"Everyday when I hear Magrib prayer calls, which signals the end of the fasting time, a feel acute longing to my home, everything seems to be bitter away from it where my parents and my brothers, my uncles, my husband, along with my kids gather for fast-breaking banquet and other Ramadan traditions," tearful Um Zaher told KUNA.
In another camp in the central Babylon Province, Sabhan Mohammad Jaafar has a similar story.
"This Ramadan we undergo difficult and painful situation," Jaafar, a Turkmen from Mosul, told KUNA.
"Dozens of displaced families, including mine, are living in the courtyard of
a mosque in Babylon after ISIL's control of our city." He added that he yearns for the past good days before the eruption of the fighting in the city.
"We are longing to our past when we were welcoming the holy month with its special traditions." Umm Mohammed Al-Bayati, Jaafar's sister, said that Ramdan fell this year in hard times for Iraqis, especially the displaced.
"In the past, we were fasting and breaking the fast with our neighbors and family member. We were making desserts and distributing it to neighbors and worshipers, but today we are waiting for what well-offs donate to us." For his part, Ahmad Tout, who distributes dates and bottles of milk to displaced people in Babylon camp, stressed that he and other residents of the province are keen on offering a helpful hand to their conflict-traumatized compatriots.
"We love to welcome and help people in need regardless of the
tribulations of life," he told KUNA.
Despite some improvement in the facilities in Saad refugee camp Diyala Province as many of its dwellers are living in caravans after a fire has burnt their tents two months ago, they still suffer from the harsh conditions, high temperatures and the difficulty in getting food, water and health care.
"For months we are living under blazing heat without protection, except for
a simple tent that has been recently replaced by a small Caravan," Yassen Al-Alyawi, a Saad camp resident, told KUNA.
"Over year has gone since we came to this camp and what the humanitarian organizations provide us is barely helping us to survive," Al-Alyawi, one of the displaced people of Salahuddin province, said. He stated that 11 families are sharing bloc of ice to cool the water to drink after they break their fast.
A number of Diyala youth formed voluntarily team to hold breakfast banquets for the displaced.
Ali Al-Tamimi a member of this team, told KUNA that "We started to collect money to hold Ramadan banquets for displaced people, Diyala residents donated to us generously." "We are trying to give them the feeling that they are at home." Mohammed Sheet, who lives with his wife and four children in a tent in Al-Hardanih camp, north of Baghdad, is equally suffering.
"Our conditions are worse this Ramadan. We received the holy month this year with no electricity, no cool drinking water, not to mention the health services," he told KUNA.
"The breakfast meals come from philanthropists who stand by their compatriots after the government and its relief agencies have let us down." The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) provided along with the Arab and international relief organizations, including the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society humanitarian needs including food, cooking pots, blankets, soap and other urgent supplies to thousands of displaced people who recently fled Ramadi.
The local government of Baghdad and distributed food basket at the
advent of the holy month of Ramadan to 18,000 displaced families out of 20,000 in Baghdad, according to an Iraqi official.
The International Committee of the Red Cross announced it has offered relief aid to over 640,000 displaced Iraqis since the start of the year.
Last month, His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-
Jaber Al-Sabah donated USD 200 million of humanitarian aid to Iraq.
The number of people displaced by conflict in Iraq since the start of 2014 has reached a new high of 2.8 million, the International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday.
The IOM put the number at exactly 2,834,676 and said a wave of displacement caused by fighting in Ramadi, the capital of the western province of Anbar, was the cause of the latest rise.
The organisation said that 133,000 people left their homes when the
Islamic State group attacked parts of Ramadi a month ago. More than 16,000 have since returned to the city centre.
There were around 300,000 internally displaced persons in Iraq at the beginning of 2014.
Unrest broke out in Al-Anbar early last year, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes. The biggest wave of displacement occurred when IS launched a wide-scale offensive on June 9.
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