The army is distributing food and other aid in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, in a bid to avoid a humanitarian crisis, the army and Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said on 20 April.
"We've adopted a new strategy in tandem with our military operations against militants... by distributing food parcels to families who live in areas where clashes are taking place, and we are also allowing them to go out and buy basic essentials," Maj Emad Saad al-Amili told IRIN.
"These food parcels contain flour, rice, milk, sugar, beans and other dried food, and detergents. On 19 April we allowed residents of the northern Hayaniyah area, where clashes had been taking place, to go out before dark to buy food, water and other materials for their daily needs and to stock up in case they cannot leave [their homes] for days," al-Amili said.
Meanwhile, the IRCS head in Basra, Salih Hmoud, said aid operations had not been disrupted by the fighting.
"Up till now we have not received any calls from the government [to distribute aid]; the humanitarian situation is stable... there are only door-to-door searches for weapons and sporadic clashes in one or two areas," Hmoud said.
"Our teams are working freely and they are distributing an average of 200 food parcels a day in addition to medicines and food," he said.
On 25 March the government, backed by US-led coalition forces, launched a crackdown in Basra against Shia militia (the Mahdi Army) loyal to radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, leading to scores of deaths and injuries and paralysing existing aid operations.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
