Iraq has been marked by a decade of war and conflict. The latest war, between Islamic State fighters and the Iraqi government triggered one of the largest humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world. Since 2017, more than 6 million people in Iraq have been displaced by the conflict. With the end of hostilities in 2017, the humanitarian crisis in the country is entering into a new phase. Majority of households who fled ISIS terror have started to return to their homes after years in exile, but they are returning to ash and rubble. Four years of conflict with ISIS have taken a huge toll on the public infrastructure.
According to the United Nations, 1.9 million internally displaced persons and an additional 9 million Iraqis will be dependent on humanitarian aid in Iraq in October 2018.
As a consequence of these developments, Malteser International expanded its emergency relief for refugees and displaced people in the Middle East, particularly in Iraqi Kurdistan, in August 2014. We work together with local partners in the regions of Erbil, Dohouk and Nineveh to provide medical aid for displaced people in refugee camps and with mobile medical teams. In order to assist the return and reintegration process of displaced communities in the Nineveh plains of northern Iraq, Malteser International is reconstructing destroyed buildings and infrastructure in the Nineveh governorate.
Malteser International Locations: Dohouk, Erbil
Stefanie Heil
+49-(0)221-96441-252
Email: stefanie.heil(at)malteser-international.org
After three years under the control of the self-described “Islamic State" (IS), the city of Mosul has been liberated. However, according to Malteser International's country representative in Iraq, Stefan Jansen, there is still much work to be done in bringing help to the people of the devastated city.
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I had just got ready for work when my mother told me we had to run. I had to change – take off my makeup and put on discreet clothes so that I wouldn’t stand out. Then we went...” Zahra is Malteser International's pharmacist at the Bersevi II refugee camp in Kurdistan, and a refugee herself. Read her story here!
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