International organizations complain about checkpoints: they prevented aid from reaching 18,000 need

[size=52]International organizations complain about checkpoints: they prevented aid from reaching 18,000 needy people[/size]

[size=45]Translated by Hamid Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]A report prepared by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Iraq (OCHA) revealed that during the month of April, humanitarian non-governmental organizations and other United Nations organizations were subjected to harassment ranging from moderate to severe at security checkpoints and others run by armed factions in the governorates of central and northern Iraq that obstructed access Aid to hundreds of thousands of needy IDPs and returnees.[/size]
[size=45]The United Nations office report stated that 24% of the areas covered in each of the central and northern governorates of Iraq in Anbar, Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salah al-Din ranged from moderate to severe difficulties in reaching the needy.[/size]
[size=45]Previously, during the first ten months of 2020, the delivery of humanitarian aid had greatly deteriorated in Iraq compared to the conditions for aid delivery during the end of 2019. However, the delivery of aid at the district and neighborhood level has generally improved following the establishment of a federal government authorization mechanism to grant the right to enter organizations. Non-governmental organizations for federal regions during October 2020.[/size]
[size=45]Humanitarian organizations reported various cases of harassment, 80% of which were concentrated in the governorates of Anbar, Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala, and the intensity of the harassment varied according to the regions, their location, and the checkpoints leading to them, which are managed by armed factions or security forces, which require approvals and authorizations, which in turn increase the difficulties of delivering humanitarian aid. These organizations confirmed that 14 incidents occurred in eight areas, where they were prevented from entering, and that 74% of those incidents were related to administrative restrictions on humanitarian activities and movements. Almost 18,000 people in need of aid have been affected by these accidents.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicated that five of those incidents (36%) took place in the Kirkuk governorate, where the local police, the federal police and the Kirkuk Operations Command were demanding non-governmental organizations a valid authorization letter issued by the Operations Center and other authorizations to operate in the Hawija and Daquq areas. Although the number of accidents in April was almost half the number of incidents reported the previous month and 73% less than the monthly average from January to December 2020, a higher percentage of incidents was characterized by the interference of security forces in the distribution of humanitarian aid, including three incidents. This type occurred in Nineveh governorate, where local authorities asked NGOs to appoint a cadre of local residents in the area in which they work.[/size]
[size=45]In Diyala governorate, a checkpoint run by an armed faction asked a humanitarian organization to give them a percentage of the humanitarian aid cargo they had with them.[/size]
[size=45]In another incident mentioned in the report, which occurred in eastern Mosul, it was represented by the three members of an armed faction forcibly entering the office of a non-governmental organization and threatening the members of the organization's team, demanding that they stop their work in the area. They accused the staff of supporting people and families suspected of belonging to extremist groups.[/size]
[size=45]There were many other reports of preventing the entry of humanitarian aid to areas in Hawija and Daquq at checkpoints managed by security forces. As the security forces often demand authorizations for NGOs.[/size]
[size=45]In the Balad and Samarra regions of Salah al-Din governorate, there were also reports of difficult difficulties that prevented humanitarian organizations from delivering aid according to the set plan, at checkpoints run by armed factions. The report indicated that there are approximately 4.1 million people in Iraq in need of humanitarian aid, including 700,000 people in urgent need of assistance, including 90,300 in locations outside camps, as well as 285,000 returnees living in 15 different areas in the governorates of Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salah al-Din. In general, 1.17 million people in these governorates are planned to receive humanitarian aid according to the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2021.[/size]
[size=45]For: United Nations OCHA[/size]
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