8 million Iraqis need urgent aid
About 8 million Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said a joint report (pdf) released today by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq.
Although armed violence is the greatest threat facing Iraqis, the report said, the population is also experiencing another crisis of "an alarming scale and severity".
Researchers found that 15% of Iraqis cannot regularly afford to eat, 70% do not have adequate water supplies (up from 50% in 2003), 28% of children are malnourished (compared with 19% before the 2003 invasion), and 92% of children suffer learning problems.
The report also said more than 2 million people - mostly women and children - have been displaced within Iraq and have no reliable income, while another 2 million Iraqis have fled the country as refugees, mostly to neighbouring Syria and Jordan. Read more
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