Handicap International, which has an office in Luxembourg, has set up a number of interventions in Iraq since the start of military operations there in October last year. 

Among the camps in which Handicap International is working, Khazer, pictured above, is one of the biggest IDP camps opened in the frame of the Mosul Emergency Response. It currently hosts close to 30,000 people from Mosul and its surroundings. Over half of the population in Khazer is under 18 years old.

Already, 350,000 people have already fled the city of Mosul, adding to the existing population of 3 million internally displaced persons (IDP) in Iraq. Over the last six months, the organisation has provided emergency aid to more than 5,000 people.

The United Nations believes that the number of refugees from Mosul could eventually reach 700,000 people, and 5,000 have been fleeing the fighting every day since the launch of an offensive on the western part of the city on 19 February.

"People are fleeing in chaos, without the means to feed themselves, to take care of themselves and to take shelter. They have abandoned everything behind them and are in total destitution,” said Fanny Mraz, head of mission for Handicap International in Iraq.

In response to a crisis of this magnitude, Handicap International has set up rehabilitation, psychological support and mine risk, improvised explosive devices and explosive remnants of war (ERW) awareness education in villages and camps on the outskirts of Mosul. 

Four mine and ERW risk education teams, four psychological support teams - including two psychologists to respond to the most severe cases of trauma - and four rehabilitation teams are deployed in displacement areas.

Handicap International also intervened in six IDP camps and at the Qayyarah hospital in the outskirts of Mosul, and plans to expand in the coming weeks, including two hospitals in Mosul itself. Since last October, the organisation has provided functional rehabilitation care to nearly 800 people and psychological assistance to more than 4,500 people. 

Image: © E. Fourt