MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Nearly half a million people have been displaced in the six-month campaign to reclaim the Iraqi city of Mosul from terrorists, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday, confirming local authorities' figures.
"Already, more than 493,000 people have left, leaving almost everything behind," Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Lise Grande said in a statement.
As many as 500,000 civilians could remain in parts of western Mosul under Daesh jihadist group control, OCHA estimates.
"Our worst case scenario when the fighting started was that up to one million civilians may flee Mosul," Grande said.
The UN humanitarian office said in February that 217,000 people have fled Mosul since the liberation campaign began in October 2016.
