PHOTOS: Refugees crowd makeshift camps as they flee the Islamic State in Iraq
At least 340,000 people have been displaced since the fighting in Mosul started last October, and up to 500,000 could flee by the time it’s over, according to Iraqi and United Nations officials.
Aid agencies warned at the start of the Mosul offensive that hundreds of thousands could flee the fighting. Instead, many families on the east side initially sheltered in place, and those who did flee found shelter at hastily erected emergency camps.
Now, however, with fighting intensifying as troops move deeper into the more densely populated west side, shortages abound and the exodus has accelerated, with some arriving barefoot and bereft, straining Hamam Alil.
Civilians fleeing Mosul try to push their way onto a bus headed for another displaced persons camp outside of Hamam Alil.
Under the threat of a sniper down the road behind them residents flee the conflict on foot in West Mosul.
A child smokes outside the displaced persons camp in Hamam Alil.
People linger outside at a United Nations displaced persons camp in Hamam Alil. The Iraqi government revised its estimate of those expected to be displaced from western Mosul from 250,000 to 400,000, and expects the daily rate of displacement to exceed 10,000.
A man gets his beard trimmed at the United Nations camp in Hamam Alil.
The camp in Hamam Alil, like many surrounding Mosul, was quickly erected to provide the bare essentials: a fence for security, shelter under hundreds of white family tents, larger group tents designed to hold 150 people temporarily, and latrines.
Samir Taha Tahsin, with family members and friends, live camped under the cement ruins of soccer stadium stands in a fenced off an area the size of two rooms with rope, bedsheets and comforters, then covered the ground with cardboard boxes outside the United Nations camp in Hamam Alil.
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