U.S Announces Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq

United States Announces Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq Crisis

Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 10, 2014

Today, Secretary Kerry announced that the United States is providing nearly $48 million in additional humanitarian aid to meet the urgent needs of Iraqi internally displaced and refugees throughout the region. This assistance includes:

• Nearly $37 million through the international and non-governmental organizations working to meet the needs of those affected by violence within Iraq; and,

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• Nearly $11 million through non-governmental organizations to assist Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
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Today’s announcement brings the total amount of the United States’ humanitarian assistance to displaced Iraqis to more than $186 million in fiscal year 2014. U.S. humanitarian aid is providing food and clean water, shelter materials, latrines and sanitation infrastructure, hygiene kits, and other urgently needed relief supplies to help the 1.8 million people who have been displaced inside Iraq since January and the more than 141,000 Iraqi refugees in the region.

The USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), which is based in Erbil, is working closely with local officials, the UN, other donors, and humanitarian relief agencies to identify needs and scale up life-saving assistance for those caught in the midst of the conflict. Last week, the DART air lifted 60 metric tons of much-needed USAID relief supplies to help families in some of the most conflict-affected areas in Iraq. A portion of these supplies are already being distributed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to families in Amerli, which was recently liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Included in the new funding is $18 million to IOM; $1 million to UN Habitat; and more than $28 million to non-governmental organizations.

ENDS

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