Humanitarian Crisis: 1 in 3 Iraqis are now in desperate need for the BASICS of life

By: Dianne
Published On: 7/30/2007 9:29:09 AM


The mainstream media, until recently, has not fully reported the hellacious havoc that the Iraq war and sanctions have wreaked on Iraqi citizens.  The Brookings Institute's Iraq Index is a good source of a large number of Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam  Iraq.  The facts are sourced but it is long and cumbersome to review without getting overwhelmed.  So when today's Washington Post carried the AP story  NGOs Report Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq, I thought it riveting enough to bring it to the attention of the RK community.  I'd urge you to read it. 

About 8 million Iraqis _ nearly a third of the population _ need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, relief agencies said Monday.

Those Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said the report by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq.

The report said 15 percent of Iraqis cannot regularly afford to eat, and 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, up from 50 percent in 2003. It also said 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared with 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.

"Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," said Jeremy Hobbs, the director of Oxfam International. "Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty."


Time Magazine reports that:  On Monday, Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi NGOs aired a new report saying that roughly 8 million Iraqis are in need of emergency aid. That means about one in three people in Iraq now is desperate for the basics of life. Four million Iraqis (about 15% of the population) regularly cannot buy enough to eat. And 28% of children are malnourished now, compared to 19% before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. As summer heat reaches its annual highs here, 70% of Iraqis go without adequate water supplies, a figure up 20% since 2003. By way of comparison, 60% of people in southern Sudan today struggle to find enough water.

Comments



This situation contributes to the crisis (Dianne - 7/30/2007 6:46:24 PM)
From the May 2007 Brookings Index on Iraq

DOCTORS IN IRAQ
Iraqi Physicians Registered Before the 2003 Invasion 34,000
Iraqi Physicians Who Have Left Iraq Since the 2003 Invasion 12,000 (estimate)
Iraqi Physicians Murdered Since 2003 Invasion 2,000
Iraqi Physicians Kidnapped 250
Average Salary of an Iraqi Physician 7.5 million Iraqi dinars per year
(or ~$5,100 per year)
Annual Graduates from Iraqi Medical Schools 2,250
Percentage of Above That Will Work Outside of Iraq 20%
NOTE: Numbers are estimates.