Displaced Iraqis still living in poor conditions in camps

(9 Dec 2018) One year from the Iraqi government announcement of the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria, many people are still living in terrible conditions in displacement camps as well as other areas in Iraq. The Nimrud camp for displaced people in southern Mosul is hosting more than 650 families displaced from various areas of Iraq, but mainly from Mosul, Tel Afar, and Sinjar. The camp was hit by heavy rains on Friday and Saturday, which flooded the entire camp and forced the evacuation of residents to nearby schools and mosques. The majority of these displaced people cannot go back because they have lost their houses to military operations, and many have not been rebuilt or had services supplied. Those who fled violence are also afraid to return to an insecure situation and many fear retaliation in areas previously controled by IS. Alexandra Saieh, an advocacy manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said that the camps had not been built as permanent structures, yet they had been in place for the last three to four years. Saieh also said that donor governments were "turning their backs" on Iraq after IS, cautioning that a sense that "Iraq is done" because IS was defeated was ignoring the aftermath and responsibility towards the people displaced in the fighting. IS swept into many areas in Iraq in 2014, and was able to control large governorates such as Mosul and Al anbar in Iraq. The Iraqi security forces with support from international coalition forces, managed to regain control of all these areas. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi declared the victory over IS on 09 December 2017. One year on there are more than 1.8 million people still displaced across Iraq and 500,000 thousand of them are living in camps, according to the NRC. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...