Baghdad, June 24 (RHC)-- The International Organization for Migration has put the number of people displaced in Iraq since a new wave of militancy began in the country in 2014 at three million.
The IOM said on Tuesday that 3,087,372 people have been displaced in Iraq since the start of 2014. It said a quarter of a million of that figure are those who recently fled Ramadi, the capital of the western province of Anbar, which was captured by ISIL Takfiri terrorists last month.
The majority of the displaced, around 2.6 million, are from the three provinces of Anbar, Nineveh and Salahuddin, which have been most affected by the militancy in the west and north of Iraq. Earlier in May, IOM officials expressed deep concern about the rising trend of displacement in Iraq, warning that more and more people are becoming vulnerable to the fighting across the country.
The United Nations has also warned about the dire situation of the displaced people in Anbar, urging more aid to be delivered to the affected people as the current stock of life-saving humanitarian aid is running out.
After seizing areas in Anbar in 2014, ISIL overran Nineveh's capital, Mosul, last June before sweeping south through Salahuddin. Iraqi soldiers and volunteer forces managed to completely purge the terrorist group from Tikrit, the capital of Salahuddin, in late March this year. The allied forces have also made gains against the Takfiri terrorists in Anbar, vowing to liberate the city of Ramadi.