Page | 1 Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) Iraq :Population Movement Emergency Appeal: population movement MDRIQ006; Glide n° OT-2014-000074-IRQ Date of issue: 30 June 2014 Date of disaster 10 June 2014 Operation manager: Farid AIYWAR Point of contact: Mohammed Abdisatar, Acting Secretary General Operation start date: 10 June 2014 (DREF) Expected timeframe: 6 Months Overall operation budget: CHF 6,400,292 Number of people affected: 400,000 (based on figures Number of people to be assisted: 180,000 persons. from IRCS) Host National Society presence: 300 staff and volunteers are involved in this operation, while IRCS has around 4,000 staff and active volunteers nationwide. Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners actively involved in the operation: ICRC, French Red Cross, Turkish Red Crescent, Qatar Red Crescent, and a Swedish Red Cross consortium including Norwegian Red Cross and German Red Cross. Other partner organizations actively involved in the operation: UN agencies are working closely with the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) in Baghdad and the Government of Kurdistan to ensure a coordinated assessment and response. (Refer to the Coordination section for details) A. Situation analysis Description of the disaster The humanitarian situation in Iraq took a dramatic turn on June 10, 2014, with the deterioration of the security situation in Ninewa, Salah Al-Din, and Diyala provinces. Fighting carried out by armed groups reached major cities in the country including Mosul (the second largest city in Iraq), Samara, Baquba, and Ramadi. While the precise displacement figure remains difficult to ascertain, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has been on the ground since the displacement began on the June 10, and has recorded that 80,558 families or 400,000 persons have entered the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The security situation continued to deteriorate by mid- June, with the Kurdistan security forces – the Peshmerga - re-taking large parts of Ninewa, much of Kirkuk, as well as Rabiyah and the border crossing to Syria from the armed groups. Violence in Tal Afar has displaced An internally displaced girl from Tal Afar receives her hot approximately 5,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) meal from the IRCS volunteers, Sinjar office. families to Zimmar (north-west Dahuk). An additional Photo:Ibrahim Malla/IFRC 3,000 families have arrived in Sinjar. Both settlements are located in what are considered Internally Disputed Boundary areas, where access is limited. At the same time the armed groups have taken Tal Afar in Ninewa, with the consequent displacement of over 6,000 families and armed groups continue to advance South, having taken control of parts of Baquba (Diyala province). Clashes continue around Tikrit and more recently in Beiji. Additionally, based on reports from IRCS, more than 4,000 families have moved to Hamadamiya, in the outskirts of Mosul, which sits in the Saladin Governorate and is part of the ‘Red Zone’ where hostilities are on-going. The IRCS and ICRC are providing the most essential relief support in this area.. Page | 2 Kurdish troops are on high alert at the borders, but Kurdistan remains a ‘Safe Zone’. Entry into Kurdistan is closely monitored through regular checkpoints at the border, as well as in the region, and priority is given to those with Kurdish residency permits or who can demonstrate they have a ‘sponsor’. The three routes taken by the IDPs to date are from the west to the east of Mosul, to other parts of Ninewa Governorate, and north to Dahuk and Erbil. Further attacks on either Mosul or Diyala / Salah al-Din Governorates, could lead to further major displacement of the remaining population. Taking into account the current IDPs caseload, it will be a struggle for either Dahuk or Erbil (the current hubs for the IDPs) to absorb increased numbers in either host families or camps (five camps are currently being established, with a maximum capacity of 7,000 families per camp (35,000 persons in total). There are also still considerable numbers being accommodated in schools, mosques and camps. Summary of the current response Overview of Host National Society The IRCS has a branch in each of the three Governorates in the Kurdistan region (the three Governorates are Dahuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah). The Head of the Dahuk Branch is leading the coordination of relief for Kurdistan during emergencies and crises. The IRCS is providing hot meals and NFI’s to IDPs for the first 24 to 72 hours in this crisis. The IRCS has pre- agreements and a tendering process for the delivery of food and non-food items from major distributors in Erbil, and had capacity in its regional warehouse for 250,000 food parcels and 50,000 NFI’s. The IRCS’s capacity, however has been hampered by the loss of their strategic warehouse in Salah Al-Din (in the Red Zone). As a result, IRCS in the region is unable to restock. The IRCS was the first organization to respond to the needs of the IDPs and rapidly activated its disaster response systems reaching 4,000 families in the first two days of the disaster. The Headquarters deployed a team of four IRCS Headquarter DM staff, plus the manager of Dahuk Branch and the disaster coordinators from Ninewa, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk, Kirkuk, and Salah Al-Din Branches. The national response team was divided into three teams (Sheikhan / Mosul, Badria / Dahuk, and Khazer / Erbil) and is conducting assessments of the needs in each area. The IRCS headquarter and other branches continue to provide technical advice and support. The IRCS has 200 volunteers and professional staff actively engaged with the field activities in the Kurdistan region. Volunteers are trained in relief distribution and basic first aid1. It should be kept in mind that there are already thousands of Syrian refugees and IDPs from the Anbar Governorate in the Kurdistan region who are dependent on the support they receive from central government and IRCS. The ongoing conflict could undermine services provided to these operations particularly around stock and volunteer availability. Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in Country The IFRC Secretariat has in conjunction with its offices in Baghdad and Beirut, deployed three officers to Erbil to support the IRCS’s assessment and response planning. This team is working closely with the Federation Country Representative in Baghdad. The IFRC has also provided a DREF (CHF 364,486), to support the NS to replenish and provide NFI stocks for 20,000 people (4,000 families) as a start up for the planned emergency appeal. This plan further develops this support and is the basis for the proposed emergency appeal. The IFRC has also provided a DREF (CHF273,000) earlier this year for three months (Feb-May2014) to support 25,000 people affected by the Anbar Crisis with Food aid and NFI’s. The ICRC has been helping displaced people since the beginning of the year. So far, the ICRC has provided food and other aid to over 150,000 people who have fled the fighting. The ICRC has carried out distributions in Anbar, Baghdad, Diyala, Karbala, Najaf, Babel, Al Qadissiya, Salah al-Din, Kirkuk, and Nineveh. Following the fruitful discussions with the ICRC, it is obvious that there is work being done by all components of the Movement to enhance cooperation and operational consistency between Movement partners. Both international components of the Movement are in discussion to support the response to this crisis in a coordinated manner and are working to improve joint communications, through a planned PNS conference call and other possible joint communications. Practical discussions are also underway between both organizations to establish the complementarities and possible areas of collaboration. Some ICRC staff in Baghdad have been relocated to the Erbil sub-delegation to support the ICRC operation in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. There are Five partner National Societies involved/ supporting the humanitarian assistance in Iraq as outlined below:- 1 While the IRCS has extensive experience in relief planning and distribution as well as good logistics capacity, additional training of volunteers on IFRC procurement and systems may be required. Page | 3 French Red Cross • On-going WATSAN and Hygiene Promotion for the Syrian refugees in Dahuk • Plans to extend support to IDPs within this same area • Vocational training for young men • Individual grants (USD 1,000) for small business start-up. • French Red Cross and Danish Red Cross are now launching a partnership to respond together with the IRCS to the needs in the Dohuk Branch. This operation will include Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion activities in camps and in the communities. FRC and DRC are still seeking additional funding to continue scaling-up their response. PNS Consortium • The consortium in Baghdad is providing support to the IRCS in first aid training (German Red Cross, and finance systems Norwegian Red Cross • The consortium was created in early 2013, Its objectives are: and Swedish Red Cross) - To strengthen the IRCS capacity in first aid, Health Care in Danger, International Humanitarian Law, Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation Reporting, Finance Development, Strategic Planning. - IRCS’ support to the Syrian crisis. Qatar Red Crescent Water & Sanitation activities in Kurdistan region of Iraq Red Crescent of the Providing NFI’s to the NS’s stocks Islamic Republic of Iran Turkish Red Crescent Providing Relief items to the Sinjar region Overview of non-RCRC actors in country Erbil is the commercial hub of the region and has also become a hub for most agencies, including UNFPA, WFP, ACTED, Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council, UNICEF and UNHCR. The cluster system has been activated and various agencies are carrying out assessments to identify needs and gaps and develop contingency plans should the situation continue to escalate.