THE HUMANITARIAN COST OF A LIBERATED TAL AFAR

Humanitarian aid workers yesterday urged Iraqi authorities to ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing Tal Afar and its surrounds, as reports emerged of people dying after walking for days in 50°C heat to reach safety.

Thousands have fled the city since Sunday, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IMO), when Iraqi forces launched an offensive to retake Tal Afar from ISIL.

An estimated 50,000 civilians have now fled the city since April but about 30,000 remain trapped by the fighting, the United Nations said.

Caught between the two sides, those still in the city have been pounded by Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft for weeks, as well as intense artillery fire since Sunday.

“We fear that Iraqi civilians are likely to be held as human shields again and that attempts to flee could result in executions and shootings,” said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, referring to tactics used by ISIL fighters in their losing defence of Mosul.

One mother, from the village of Mzra’a near Tal Afar, told Oxfam she feared her husband was dead after ISIL took him as they fled.

“ISIL took my husband two days ago as we tried to escape,” said Nahida Ali (not her real name).

“We wanted to leave a month ago but ISIL wouldn’t let us. If they saw a family leaving they would take the men. We saw a lot of people killed, that is why we were so afraid.

“We are worried they would kill my husband. My son will not stop crying because ISIL took his father and we do not know where he is.”

Others told Oxfam they had left Tal Afar during the night because ISIL was preventing them from fleeing.

The anti-poverty organisation said it was calling on the Iraqi government to ensure that civilians could reach safety and receive the help they urgently needed.

The UN and other humanitarian agencies are working to establish shelters for the displaced.

IOM’s two emergency displacement shelters – about 60 kilometres south of Mosul – said they had received more than 3,000 individuals. An estimated 1,500 refugees had been received at the Haj Ali site, while more than 1,700 had arrived at Qayara.

“We are very concerned for the safety of civilians, both those inside the city of Tal Afar, and those who are attempting to flee,” said IOM’s spokeswoman, Sandra Black. “The weather is extremely hot, and families fleeing the conflict are forced to walk long distances, often eight hours or more, to reach safety.”

Oxfam reported civilians walking for even longer.

Nahida Ali said she had walked for two days in the blistering heat with no water to reach an Oxfam screening site in Badush, about 60km east of the city.

Another mother from Mzra’a, Ahlam Ibrahim, said the road to safety had been steep and rocky and that elderly people had died along the way. “It was so hard to walk and the road smelt of dead bodies,” she said.

“I lost my voice because I was shouting at my children to stay with me. They were so scared.”

Ms Black said IOM medical staff had seen many cases of “dehydration, trauma injuries due to violent fractures and severe malnutrition among children who have been living in Tal Afar”.

Civilians who fled Tal Afar reported serious shortages of food, water and health supplies in the city.

Abu Zaid, who spoke to IOM staff at the Haj Ali shelter, said his family was trapped for nine months in Abu Maria village in the district of Tal Afar, without any access to food, goods or clothes. He did not allow his children to go to school because ISIL had taken control of most of the schools in the village.

“We fled on August 14 from Abu Maria village. We walked for seven hours until we reached the Iraqi military.

“They took us to Hammam Al Alil and we stayed there for three days, but then we chose to go to Haj Ali because I have relatives there.

“When we reached the Iraqi security forces, and then Hammam Al Alil, all the children received vaccinations and the rest of the family a health check-up. As soon as we arrived at Haj Ali emergency site, we received a food package.

“There is water here, and IOM gave us a tent and non-food item kits as well as blankets and mattresses,” he said.

Also yesterday, an Iraqi military commander told the Associated Press that Iraqi forces had captured two neighbourhoods in Tal Afar from ISIL – Al Kifah Al Janoubi on the south-west edge of Tal Afar, and Al Kifah Al Shamali on its north-west periphery.

About 50,000 civilians have now fled Tal Afar since April but about 30,000 remain trapped by the fighting