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21 Mar 2003 16:55
GMT |
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Aid Groups
Warn of Disaster Among Iraq Population
By Stephanie
Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - Major aid agencies Friday warned of an
"unprecedented disaster" in Iraq as they swung into action to avert
food shortages and disease outbreaks among an already impoverished
and underfed population.
With relief operations being hamstrung by donor reluctance
to contribute funds ahead of the conflict, the United Nations said
it will launch an appeal for more than $1 billion early next week.
U.S. forces thrust deep into southern Iraq a day after
launching air strikes and the United States said it still hoped to
topple President Saddam Hussein without an all-out war. Scores of
Iraqis have surrendered and some have been killed.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said
its officials were making the rounds of hospitals in Baghdad Friday
after a second night of bombing.
Doctors Without Borders, which along with the ICRC deploys
virtually the only expatriate aid workers still in Baghdad, said it
had no reports of major casualties following the one death and 14
injured reported Thursday. It said Baghdad hospitals and emergency
medical facilities still appeared to function.
But agencies sounded the alarm about a civilian population
already weakened by the impact of nearly 13 years of economic
sanctions. Almost two-thirds of the Iraqi population relies on
rations for all their food. Malnutrition already strikes 1.3 million
Iraqi children under the age of 5, or one in four, according to the
UN's Children's Fund UNICEF.
"Iraq is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian
catastrophe. We are facing our largest and most complex operation
ever undertaken," spokeswoman Wivina Belmonte said.
MILK AND COOKIES
UNICEF has brought milk and high-protein cookies into Iraq
for 240,000 malnourished children and 130,000 pregnant and nursing
women. It has repaired generators for 100 water and sewage
facilities but says 5 million people are "at risk because of a lack
of access to water and sanitation services."
The UN's World Food Program (WFP), which estimates that
Iraqis have about six weeks worth of food reserves left, has already
brought 32,000 tons of food to surrounding countries. It is seeking
another $1 billion for food under the overall U.N. emergency appeal.
"We estimate that 2.1 million people could require food
aid over the next four weeks," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume
said. "If the war last longer than four weeks, the entire population
would need food aid ... ."
In Washington, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said
Thursday it would release up to 600,000 tons of U.S. wheat.
Health officials warned that any major flood of refugees
was likely to cause disease outbreaks, particularly among women and
children, the disabled and the elderly.
"If there are major movements of people, because of the
water and sanitation situation inside the country, there will almost
certainly be problems with disease outbreaks. We can also anticipate
disease outbreaks in refugee camps," World Health Organization (WHO)
spokesman Iain Simpson said.
NO MAJOR REFUGEE FLOWS
But so far, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) said no major refugee flows had been detected to any of
Iraq's six neighbors -- Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria
and Turkey -- which all had opened their borders.
The agency is braced for a possible 600,000 Iraqi refugees
who might flee the U.S.-led attacks, and has relief supplies for
300,000 stocked in Turkey, Iran and Turkey.
Iran said Thursday it was bracing for up to 1.2 million
refugees from Iraq and complained that international help was slow
in coming. It said Iran would only allow in those Iraqis whose lives
were deemed to be in danger.
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