A humanitarian disaster is unfolding around Iraq's Fallujah as tens of thousands flee the Isis-held city, a Maltese aid worker has warned.
"I saw children who have lost their parents, I saw an old woman on her last breath, I saw a woman collapsing because of dehydration... we're running out of water and tents in temperatures of 50 degrees. We can't cope. This is a colossal crisis," Karl Schembri from the Norwegian Refugee Council told Times of Malta.
A total of 62,000 have been displaced, half of them having fled in the three days since Isis fighters withdrew from their positions on the streets of Fallujah’s city centre.
Conditions inside displacement camps are deteriorating by the day, where hundreds remain without any form of shelter or protection from the elements in the scorching heat.
The Norwegian Refugee Council is providing up to three litres of drinking water per person per day in Amariyat Al Fallujah camps, which is way below the emergency standard of 10 litres per person per day.
"That is a dangerously low amount in the prevailing heat and is bound to force people to resort to unsafe drinking water with serious public health consequences," Mr Schembri said.
Delays...
