KRG Peshmerga troops have liberated tens of thousands of square kilometers from ISIS, including strategic towns and roads which laid the groundwork for the Mosul offensive. These gains were made at great expense, with 1,600 Peshmerga killed and nearly 10,000 seriously wounded. At the same time, a financial crisis has crippled the region, resulting from the cost of the war and humanitarian crisis, the crash in oil prices, and the federal government’s unconstitutional decision to withhold Kurdistan’s share of Iraq’s federal budget.
As a result, KRG employees, who make up the bulk of the work force, have experienced delays in their salaries and cuts to benefits and pensions. This has had a profound, negative effect on frontline Peshmerga soldiers and civil servants involved in assisting the humanitarian crisis. Additionally, the unemployment rate has increased by threefold from 3% in 2013 to 14% in 2016.
HEALTH SERVICES:
Kurdistan Region's hospitals are already unable to provide sufficient care for the influx of injured Iraqi Security Forces and Peshmerga, as well as thousands of civilian IDP casualties. There are simply not enough intensive care units, recovery beds, and medical supplies to absorb all cases.
Since the military operations on 17 October 2016, over (10340) injured civilians have been transferred to the hospitals in Kurdistan Region; (2340 Duhok governorate and 8000 Erbil governorate). This is apart from the huge number of wounded Iraqi soldiers and peshmarga forces. Without immediate international assistance to build the capacity of Kurdistan's medical care, we could be heading towards a catastrophe.
The difficulty in caring for the influx is compounded by an ongoing financial crisis and the insufficient medical supplies being sent by the federal government. The financial crisis has left the KRG struggling to pay salaries of public servants, which is having a negative effect on medical professionals in the region. Qualified medical personnel are unable to work long hours required to support massive influxes of IDPs.
SHELTER:
With the support from the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displaced (MoDM) and UNHCR, the KRG has constructed 5 emergency camps for new arrivals from Mosul in Duhok and Erbil. The finished emergency camps are already fully occupied and accommodated over 26,000 families, 96,000 individuals; with support from the MoDM and partners, five additional emergency camps are being finished to create more space for the continuous flow of IDPs from Mosul.
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