WFP says serious food shortages in Fallujah besieged by Iraqi army
Date
3/9/2016 12:19:57 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) >Humanitarian disaster is looming in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stronghold under siege by security forces where tens of thousands of people face food shortages the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on March 8.
There is no flour rice sugar or oil available in Fallujah and the prices of the little food that is left have risen sharply the agency quoted Fallujah residents as telling it.
Fuel and cooking oil are no longer available and the price of a kilo of flour leaped to 24000 IQD ($20) in January up more than 800 percent from December the WFP said.
The Iraqi army police and Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias - backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition - imposed a near total siege late last year on Fallujah located 50 kilometers west of Baghdad in the Euphrates river valley.
“The humanitarian situation in Fallujah is dire and residents need immediate assistance” WFP spokeswoman Marwa Awad told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“We are aware that no food is going into the city and that militant groups are controlling the remaining food supplies.”
It has been too dangerous for the WFP to reach the area since September 2015 when it delivered a one-month supply of food to 400 families in Garma 10 km from Fallujah she said.
“We are deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation inside Fallujah where many people require immediate food assistance” Awad said. “We are ready to help but we are on standby until ... the authorities give the green light to go in.”
Of the estimated 30000 - 60000 residents of Fallujah a “significant number” are surviving on potatoes and other local food after moving towards rural areas on the outskirts of the city Awad said by phone from Iraq.
“We call on all parties to allow access to prevent a humanitarian disaster” she said. “Sadly everyone is focused on Syria and Yemen and the international community is no longer prioritizing Iraq that’s the problem.”
Fallujah a long-time bastion ofSunniMuslim jihadists was the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIL in January 2014 six months before the group swept through large parts of northern and western Iraq and neighboring Syria.
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