ERBIL, Iraq
The Turkish Red Crescent delivered humanitarian aid to 600 internally displaced families in the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
“We have distributed aid packages containing food, cleaning supplies and clothes to 600 families in Bharka camp,” the Turkish Red Crescent’s coordinator in Iraq, Shafak Lostar, told The Anadolu Agency.
Bharka camp is located in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government in north Iraq.
“There were 20 trucks bringing humanitarian aid from the Turkish Red Crescent, NGOs and donors. We were in Tuz Khurmatu and Kafeeri working on delivering aid which Turkey provided to the internally displaced persons,” Lostar added.
The Turkish Red Crescent delivered humanitarian aid to Turkmen, Kurdish, Arab, Ezidi and Shabak families in the camp, according to the Turkmen Iraqi front's representative, Aydin Maaruf.
“Turkey has shown its support to the Iraqi people since the start of the clashes. There are 200 Turkish aid trucks arriving in Iraq, and they are still coming to this day,” Maaruf added.
Internally displaced persons have become a major problem in Iraq.
Ten thousand internally displaced persons were recorded on Monday by the Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Migrants, increasing the official recorded number to 470,000.
Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it calls a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
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