IRAQ: Red Crescent reaches edge of Fallujah as humanitarian crisis deepens

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BAGHDAD, 15 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - As fighting enters its eighth day in Fallujah, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) is preparing to send a second convoy of aid into the city, after they succeeded in reaching the main hospital on Saturday amid growing fears of a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Without official permission from the US-led forces or the Iraqi government for security and safety reasons, the IRCS managed to deliver food and medical supplies to the main hospital located on the edge of the city, which lies 60 km west of Baghdad.

Around 30 volunteers, including doctors and nurses, drove five trucks and three ambulances into the city after an initial delay at a US checkpoint and arrived at the hospital, but getting to the heart of Fallujah may take more time, IRCS spokeswoman Firdoos al-Abadi told IRIN in Baghdad.

The white trucks, some with flags jutting out of them, were carrying bread, rice, water and medical supplies. "I think it was a real triumph to get in given US troop opposition but we still haven't provided enough to meet the urgent demand in Fallujah," al-Abadi warned.

"Children in Fallujah are dying and people are making things to eat from flour only because there is no more food in their homes."

But already on Monday a new convoy was making its way to the city, al-Abadi said. Some 50 volunteers, three ambulances and three trucks filled with food and medical supplies are due to reach the main hospital later on Monday, although they don't have permission to attend the injured people there, she said.

According to residents, thirst and hunger has already killed four children in the city. "I lost my three-year-old nephew because his father couldn't go out to search for water. This is just one of the many disasters that Fallujah is experiencing now," Fadhel Abu Ray, a local resident told IRIN.

"They are dying of starvation and a lack of water, children are drinking dirty water from the streets, if there is not a fast solution to this collapse it will expand to other cities and other parts of the country and there will be a big disaster here," Al-Abadi warned.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman Ahmed Rawi told IRIN that a mosque in Fallujah was serving as a clinic. But he said that wounded civilians often bled to death because other residents were too afraid of snipers to try and move them.

He said he believed that only 150 families were still in the heart of Fallujah, but there was equal concern about the plight of tens of thousands of people living in camps and villages dotted outside.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also said that hundreds of thousands have taken refuge in neighbouring towns, including Garma, 6 km away. Families there listen to the roar of jet fighters and see the black plumes of smoke and wonder what has become of their city.

“We left a month ago, but I kept going back to do my work and check my house,” Muhammed, 35, a builder, told IRIN. “Now, I can‘t even go to check. All of our belongings are there. I oppose military operations, but what can we do?”

Since the news came on Saturday of the IRCS reaching the city, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has offered to help the IRCS with supplies but nothing has reached them so far.

The MoH told IRIN that they had prepared ambulances, doctors and nurses together with medicine and surgical material to be taken to Fallujah in the next couple of days. "We are just waiting for a minimum of security in the area before entering the city," Ammar al-Saffar, deputy Minister of Health said.

The IRCS said that many displaced families are believed to be in Tikrit, Daura, Baiji and Sayniya, all north of Baghdad, while negotiations are ongoing to open a camp in the capital itself.

The resort village of Habaniyah is accommodating some 1,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are camped in the area and the town of Amiriyat al-Fallujah northeast of the city is supporting another 4,000 families. These areas are still in desperate need of supplies, especially food. Both the ICRC and the IRCS said they were going to send a new convoy on Tuesday.

However, the IRCS's Al-Abadi warned that they were rapidly running out of supplies, the most important being blankets, antibiotics and tents for camps. She has sent letters to many NGOs but hasn't received replies yet.

"The last 500 blankets are in this morning [Monday]'s convoy and we don't have any more, we really need those materials urgently," she said.

At the same time, the ICRC has been in contact with the Iraqi government and the US-led multinational forces to obtain permission to send rescue teams into the city and evacuate wounded people who could not be treated locally due to shortages in medical supplies, but they are still waiting for a reply, Rawi of the ICRC told IRIN.

According to the Ministry of National Security, US and Iraqi forces have killed over 1,000 insurgents in the battle. "More than 1,000 terrorists and Saddamists have been killed and around 200 have been arrested, operations are almost over. There are only pockets of resistance left in the city," Minister Kasim Daoud told reporters.

But both residents and the IRCS said that civilians were included in this number and women and children had died in homes hit by US air strikes.

An estimated 30,000 residents, including women and children, were trapped in the city after the majority of the 300,000 population fled to nearby makeshift camps.

Fallujah has been subject to US air strikes since the last fighting between US-led forces and insurgents in April. The Coalition forces have been trying to flush out insurgents loyal to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who has made Fallujah his base.

So far, 38 US soldiers have been killed along with six Iraqi servicemen. The US military says it is in control of the city but expects fighting to continue for some days to come. Fresh air strikes and artillery attacks were launched on Monday in the south of the city.

"This fighting should stop before a humanitarian disaster happens in this country, children's lives are being taken, someone should stop and think about it," al-Abadi added.

[ENDS]