GENEVA, October 27 (RIA Novosti) — Russia has sent 57 tons of humanitarian aid to Iraq, the Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Geneva told RIA Novosti Monday.
"Russia is contributing to the provision of assistance to refugees in Iraq. The country has already sent 20 tons of humanitarian aid to Baghdad and 37 tons to Erbil. Financial aid is not under consideration now," Rashid Khalikov said.
He noted that the aid consists mostly of medicines, blankets and clothes. Khalikov did not specify the period, over which the whole 57 tons of aid were sent to Iraq.
According to Khalikov, $2.2 billion are needed for refugees in Iraq by the end of 2015. And although a number of countries have already allocated about $600 million, Khalikov expressed doubt that the UN would be able to raise even half the sum required in 2015.
According to OCHA, because of the actions of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq, urgent humanitarian aid is required for about 5.2 million people. More than 2 million of them are located in the areas under IS control. About 1.8 million people were displaced from their homes, half of them are children.
