UNITED NATIONS, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Over the past 48 hours, 200,000 civilians have fled the advance of the Islamic State militant group, previously known as the Islamic State Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS or ISIL), in northern Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said Thursday.
“Over the last 48 hours, 200,000 civilians have fled the advance of ISIL, with at least 180,000 crossing into the Dohuk district of the Kurdistan Region,” UNAMI said in a report. “This in addition to large numbers of civilians displaced as a result of the ISIL advance into Sinjar and Tal Afar districts of Ninewa Governorate that took place on 2-3 August, which resulted in up to 200,000 predominantly Yazidi civilians becoming trapped on Jabal Sinjar in territory now controlled by ISIL.”
“The UN continues to receive reports that members of minority communities are being subjected to serious human rights violations by ISIL including murder, kidnapping, forced conversions, physical and sexual assault, and the looting and destruction of property of places of religious and cultural significance,” UN Deputy Special Representative Gyorgy Busztin said.
Speaking about the humanitarian situation, Busztin said that “many are in locations that are inaccessible, including those who have been trapped for over five days on Jabal Sinjar mountain - women, children, aged people and people with disabilities and those in need of medical assistance.”
He also warned that “without the delivery of urgent life-savings items, including water, food, shelter and medicines, the lives of thousands of these is now at serious risk.”
The UN Security Council scheduled an urgent meeting on the situation in Iraq for late Thursday.
