Fallujah liberation operation displaced 43k Iraqis: IOM

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says over 430,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the operation to retake the Daesh-held Iraqi city of Fallujah.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration said it had "identified a total of 43,470 internally displaced Iraqis (7,245 families) from Fallujah” over the past three weeks.

The majority of those displaced were not from Fallujah itself, but lived in outlying areas, the IOM added.

It further estimated that 10,000 people had fled the Iraqi city between June 11 and June 13 alone.

"Ongoing and recent displacement, especially from Fallujah, requires immediate attention," IOM Iraq Chief of Mission Thomas Lothar Weiss said.

He also warned that funds and supplies are not sufficient to help the displaced in the Middle Eastern country.

The fresh displacements bring to 3.3 million the total number of those made homeless by the conflict in Iraq since the beginning of 2014.

In another development on Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders warned that thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing Fallujah have been without access to medicine for months and are going to areas without adequate water and sanitation.

The international medical charity, known by its French acronym as the MSF, further raised the likelihood of epidemics like cholera among the displaced.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still believed to be holed up in Fallujah, some of them being used as human shields by Daesh militants.

Daesh overran Fallujah in the western Anbar province in January 2014, six months before the terror group proceeded with its offensive, taking more areas in Iraq.

On May 23, the Iraqi military started a large-scale push to drive out the militants from Fallujah, located nearly 70 kilometers west of the capital, Baghdad.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh launched an offensive in the Arab state two years ago.

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