BEIRUT: Pregnant women fleeing western Mosul where Daesh militants are defending their last stronghold against Iraqi troops, are in some cases giving birth on the run, raising concerns about the health of mothers and newborns, an aid agency said on Wednesday.
The eastern half of Mosul is reported to be completely under the control of Iraqi security forces, which began its campaign to regain control of one of Iraq’s biggest cities last October.
But the push against Daesh in western Mosul is bogged down with Iraqi government forces fighting in a warren of small streets in the old part of the city.
Save the Children, which spoke to a 17-year-old Iraqi who gave birth as she fled fighting and another teenager who gave birth while trapped inside her home in Mosul, said there could be many more such cases.
It warned of dire health consequences for mothers and newborns.
“Some could die simply because of lack of food, lack of clothes, and lack of hygiene,” Save the Children’s Deputy Country Director for Iraq, Aram Shakaram, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Irbil. Seventeen-year-old Rehab, who gave birth in an abandoned building, told the charity she went into labor on the road.
“I was very scared for me and my baby, but my mother and another older woman helped me. It was very quick, maybe just 15 minutes,” Save the Children quoted her as saying.
“We rested for about another 30 minutes and then we started running again.”
The aid agency said the other young mother, 15-year-old Reem, was in labor for more than two days, trapped in her home in western Mosul. After regaining her strength from giving birth, she also fled with other members of her family.
Both families were able to get to Hamam Al Alil camp, about 20 km south of Mosul where 242,000 people have been registered since the offensive started, Save the Children said.
Escaping Mosul, Iraqi women give birth where they can
Escaping Mosul, Iraqi women give birth where they can
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
