United Nations: Expressing concern over level of civilian casualties in Baghdad, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) has said hospitals and medical staff in the Iraqi
capital are overwhelmed by the huge number of people coming in for emergency
treatment.
The sheer number is putting huge pressure on both medical supplies and medical
staff, who are working round the clock to provide emergency services, WHO
spokesperson Fadela Chaib said.
There were reports that some hospitals were beginning to run short of crucial
surgical and medical supplies, she said, adding hospitals were being stretched to
their limits, and personnel faced increasing difficulties getting to work.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that many of the
electricity grids are not working, and less than 20 per cent of households are
receiving power.
The ICRC supplied five main surgical hospitals with emergency drinking water –
80,000 litres by water tankers and 23,000 one-litre plastic bags. It also provided
additional drinking water to several suburbs in Central and Northern Baghdad that
are not connected to the water network.
The UN, already concerned about flood of civilian casualties, has expressed fresh
concern over continuing looting in some cities controlled by the American-led forces.
It once again stressed on April 8 that under the international law, it is the duty
of the occupying power to ensure law and order in areas controlled by it.
UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq (OHCI) Ramiro Lopes da Silva, is pursuing the
matter with coalition forces, UN officials said.
Looting, the world body said, continued in Um Qasr and Basra in the South. The
United Nations International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) added its voice to
the concern, reporting that drivers of its aid convoys had witnessed looting in
certain areas, especially in Zubair, South of Basra.
The drivers reported that schools were being looted. "While the situation is chaotic
it is manageable. People are, very simply, desperate and need to be reassured that
aid trucks coming in will continue to supply them with the items they need," UNICEF
said.
It said schools and other locations where intense fighting took place might become
places of curiosity for children, drawing them to hunt for souvenirs and remnants of
war. Souvenirs of war can be lethal for a child, it warned.
Meanwhile, UN agencies continued to send relief supplies to Iraq in other areas,
including in the South and the North.
Five trucks carrying 31 tonnes of supplies were on way across Turkey and expected to
reach Northern Iraq on April 10.
Another 11 UNICEF trucks were on way into the South to Um Qail, South Basra, Safwan
and Zubair, bringing to 85 the number of trucks taking life-saving supplies into
Southern Iraq since the agency began its humanitarian deliveries from Kuwait.
The World Food Programme said with a large convoy rolling into Northern Iraq from
Turkey, its first major corridor into Iraq, was functioning well. Nearly half of the
wheat flour it brought in from Turkey over past few days had already been
distributed, spokesman Maarten Roest said.
A total of 6,000 tonnes of wheat flour, donated by the Canadian government, was to
be delivered in the coming week.
The UN high commissioner for the refugees reported a tiny trickle of refugees out of
Iraq – five to Jordan and 11 to Syria.
PTI
