More than 1 million displaced people in Baghdad
By Anwar Jumaa
Azzaman, January 7, 2008
One out of four people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has been displaced due to sectarian violence and ongoing U.S. military operations, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.
The society’s head Saeed Haqi said looking after this huge number was an uphill task and that the U.S. has promised to offer $250 million to help “these internal refugees.”
“There are 1.2 million internally displaced people in Baghdad,” Haqi said.
Children below the age of 15 make up 58 percent of the internally displaced population, he said.
He said Baghdad’s displaced people, who live in squalor conditions, have been promised half a billion dollars including the U.S. contribution.
International donors are expected to raise substantial sums with the Iraqi government allocating $80 million, he added.
He said the U.S. army will handle the U.S. money which will be earmarked mainly for utility projects such as pure water, electricity and schools.
Priority for the society, which is the equivalent of ICRC, is children, particularly orphaned ones, widows and families without household heads.
The Baghdad displaced people have been forced to move from one quarter to another. The figure does not include tens of thousands of Baghdadis who have opted to flee to other provinces or abroad.
Haqi said he would head a delegation to oil-rich Arab states to raise money for the most vulnerable families among the refugees.
Baghdad, he added, has been divided into three sectors to make it easier for aid workers to reach the internally displaced.
There arevabout two million Iraqi refugees who fled the country since the 2003 U.S. invasion in neighboring Syria and Jordan. The government has allocated $25 million for these refugees.
The society, like other organizations, finds it extremely hard and dangerous to work in the violence-stricken Iraq.
Haqi said his society was still negotiating with groups that have kidnapped 11 of his aid workers recently.
“We know they are alive. We are negotiating their release,” he said.
