UN agencies offer emergency assistance to Iraqis fleeing Tal Afar

Geneva, Aug 23 (IANS) As thousands of people are fleeing Tal Afar, a city west of Mosul, since a military campaign began on Sunday to retake the city from the Islamic State (IS), UN agencies of health and migration are providing emergency aids to meet their needs.

Tal Afar, some 70 km west of the newly-liberated city of Mosul, is the last IS redoubt in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh, Xinhua news agency reported.

The town and surrounding areas are inhabited by some 350,000 people, whose majority is Sunni and Shia Turkomans, in addition to the minority of Kurds and other minorities.

Most of the civilians fleeing the crisis in Tal Afar had to walk for hours in arduous conditions before reaching safe areas, many arriving exhausted and in poor health, and often with critical levels of malnutrition among children, some unable to move.

In cooperation with local partners, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency, is directly delivering medical assistance, non-food items and shelter to vulnerable displaced people from Talafar, IOM was quoted as saying.

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