merrion street

The Government today announced funding of €500,000 in emergency response to the devastating conflict and unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq, with a focus on minority groups and vulnerable women and children.

The Government will provide €250,000 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and a further €250,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to support their emergency response activities in Northern Iraq, where thousands have fled the advances of ISIS. These include up to 30,000 minority Yazidi civilians displaced in the vicinity of Mount Sinjar and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons.

The contribution to UNICEF will meet immediate life-saving needs of children and women at risk of violence, displacement, dehydration, and starvation. The funding provided to the ICRC will support provision of food and essential household items, as well as by improving the availability of water and health care.

Speaking today Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said:

The plight of the most vulnerable – particularly, children, women and elderly people – is increasingly desperate and Ireland is doing all it can to provide urgent life-saving assistance. Children are the most at risk and worst affected by violence and displacement.

Ireland condemns in the strongest possible way deliberate attacks on Iraqi civilians and calls on all parties to the conflict to ensure safe passage of displaced populations and delivery of humanitarian assistance.

In addition to the €655,000 that Ireland has already provided in response to the Iraq crisis this year, this further funding will bring vital life saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians trapped by the fighting.

The humanitarian situation is worsening every day in Northern Iraq. There are approximately 200,000 people who are now in desperate need of assistance. I am particularly concerned about the plight of the Yazidi minority still trapped in the Sinjar mountains by the armed groups of ISIS.