The United Nations launched an appeal on Sunday for $861 million in international humanitarian assistance to help millions of people in Iraq who are suffering from war and displacement.
Violence including the devastating war with the Islamic State jihadist group has displaced 3.3 million Iraqis in the past two years, while some 250,000 Syrians have fled to Iraq to escape the war in their country.
"We want to use this money to reach 7.3 million people. These are the most vulnerable people in Iraq," UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq Lise Grande told a Baghdad news conference.
"Our top priority is to get to the people who are in the most trouble and to give them what they need in order to survive - food, cash, shelter, water," Grande said. Plunging oil prices have drastically reduced oil revenue which Iraq relies on for the vast majority of its funds, meaning that Baghdad cannot afford to cover the cost of addressing the humanitarian crisis.
"The needs of the displaced families are greater than our capacity, and therefore we need support from donor countries," Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff, the minister of migration and displacement, said at the news conference.
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