The International Organization of Migration, a Geneva-based inter-governmental organization focused on migration and migration-related issues, has revealed that their latest Iraq Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) has shown that more than 3.1 million Iraqis have been displaced by the conflict that began in 2014.
The DTM was developed by the International Organization of Migration as an information management tool to help gather basic information about the numbers of displaced populations as well as the conditions in the locations that these populations have temporarily settled in.
According to the DTM, the majority of the displaced population in Iraq is living in private housing, including family homes, hostels, and rented shelter (67 percent). The second largest group of displaced people lives in critical shelters, such as unfinished buildings, religious shelters and schools (20 percent), whereas only 8 percent of displaced Iraqis live in camp settings.
Of the 3.1 million, 25,000 individuals were displaced by the fall of the city of Ramadi, a key western city in Anbar province, to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in April of this year. The Ramadi defeat came one month after Iraqi forces had defeated ISIS, which was trying to take over Tikrit.
According to the organization's other data tracking tools, more than 75,000 Iraqis have been displaced from the Fallujah area, which borders Baghdad and has been partly taken over by ISIS. In recent months, the militant group has escalated its attack to try and take control of the whole city. Displaced individuals have also been driven out of the city by Iraqi forces that have intensified their efforts to retake the city from the militant group.
Displacement in the summer months when Iraq experiences scorching heat, requires special humanitarian services, such as summer blankets, rechargeable fans, tarps, cool boxes and hygiene kits.
Thomas Lothar, the International Organization of Migration's Iraq chief of mission, has said the organization is working with the U.N. Humanitarian Country team, the Iraqi government and other humanitarian efforts to "provide assistance to the most vulnerable."
Following earlier clashes in December 2013, ISIS and other aligned forces began a major offensive against the Iraqi government - known as the northern Iraq offensive - in June 2014. The militant group took control of several cities and other territories, expanding control of their territories. Since then, clashes involving tribal militias, the Iraqi government and ISIS have occurred, internally displacing millions of Iraqis.
