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The United Nations comes to the aid of the Iraqi people
[mis à jour le 18 April 2007 à 17h46]
Continued violence, an ongoing sense of insecurity, shortage of healthcare professionals… The WHO and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) are deeply concerned about the health of the Iraqi people.
At this very moment an international conference is being held at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, attended by 450 representatives from governments and international organisations. The figures being quoted are appalling. Every day 100 Iraqis are killed and even more are wounded, victims of gunfire or bombs. And according to the Iraqi authorities, 70% of those wounded and in a critical condition will die in intensive care units – due to a lack “of healthcare professionals, medicines and equipment”, states the WHO.
The health situation in the country is in a deplorable state. 7 Iraqis in 10 are without access to drinking water; 8 out of 10 are without or no longer have access to sanitation. And only 60% of the population has access to the public food distribution system. The result? A violent increase in cases of diarrhoea and respiratory infections among children under the age of 5. Illnesses which, moreover, are often made worse by malnutrition.
The WHO believes that “the pressure on the Iraqi population is becoming ever stronger”. But also on the populations of neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan which have become home to 2 of the 4 million Iraqi refugees and displaced persons.
“One Iraqi in eight has been driven from his home”, adds Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “This conference is only a first step towards what we hope will be a coordinated and global response to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq”.
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