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Statement from Sheema Sen Gupta, UNICEF Representative in Iraq

The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the cowardly terrorist attack in Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, 19 July 2021. The attack, which was claimed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), resulted in at least 30 deaths and at least 50 injured.

Baghdad 22 July 2021 — During the ISIL conflict, an estimated six million Iraqis were displaced. Thousands of families have returned to their areas of origin since the end of the crisis, but unstable conditions in Iraq have caused a significant shift in the country’s humanitarian situation. As country-wide camp consolidation and closure processes move forward, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are reckoning with the complex experiences of premature return and secondary displacement. Returnees residing in hotspots of severe living conditions and IDPs living in strained camps and informal sites are in urgent need of adapted humanitarian assistance.

UNICEF has received USD 200,000 from the Government of Canada (Canada’s International Development – Global Affairs Canada) to support sustaining the continuous provision of quality health services for refugees in Iraq which have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Supported by UNICEF, the Ministry of Education launched the 1001 nights series on education for TV and online platforms in Iraq.