Civilian casualties

58

attacks […] on the roads linking Kirkuk, Tikrit and Tuz Khurmatu, as well as ISIL hit-and-run attacks against checkpoints near these cities’.³⁶¹

59 Year

Women casualties

Children casualties³⁶⁴

Police casualties³⁶⁵

Civilian men

casualties Total

civilian casualties Killed Injured Killed Injured Killed Injured Killed Injured

2020 (Aug – Dec)

9 11 13 28 3 3 57 92 216

2021 (Jan – Oct)

9 23 51 48 12 15 165 399 722

August 2020 – October 2021

18 34 64 76 15 18 222 491 938

Table 2: Casualty figures by gender, age and police, 1 August 2020 – 31 October 2021³⁶⁶

UNAMI’s breakdown by incident type uses a different categorisation of incidents than ACLED, due to their focus on counting incidents resulting in civilian casualties/harm in the context of armed conflict. As shown by UNAMI’s categorisation in the table below, the incidents causing the highest numbers of casualties were small arms fires by pistols and/or AKs (118 killed and 124 injured), body-borne IEDs (59 killed and 153 injured), and IEDs (51 killed and 179 injured).

364 Segregation for boys and girls is not available for 2020 only.

365 Iraqi police due to their civilian functions related to law enforcement at the time of the incident are considered as civilians (not as individuals directly taking part in hostilities – DPiH))

366 UNAMI, Email to EUAA, 11 November 2021

60 Table 3: Civilian casualties by incident type³⁶⁷

Baghdad had the highest numbers of casualties (335 casualties, of which 84 were fatalities) followed by Diyala (173 casualties, of which 82 were fatalities), Salah Al-Din (107 casualties including 53 fatalities), and Ninewa (103 casualties including 27 fatalities). The lowest numbers appeared in Karbala (1 casualty) and Babil (2 casualties including one fatality). No casualties were recorded in Sulaymaniyah, Qadissiya and Wassit.

The table below shows the figures broken down by governorate. Data for districts were not available.

367 UNAMI, Email to EUAA, 11 November 2021

61 Table 4: Civilian casualties by governorate³⁶⁸ 1.4.2. IDPs and returnees

The following graph shows the evolution of the IDP/return movement in Iraq between April 2014 and September 2021, which indicates a rising number of returnees and declining numbers of internally displaced people since November/December of 2017:

368 UNAMI, Email to EUAA, 11 November 2021

62

Figure 9: Number of IDPs and returnees between April 2014 to September 2021© IOM³⁶⁹ IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) stated in its Iraq Master List Report 123 (covering the period August-September 2021) that as of 30 September 2021, 1 189 581 Iraqis were reported to be displaced across the country, located in 18 governorates, 105 districts, and 2 842 localities in Iraq, with a decrease of 1 889 IDPs compared to the number of IDPs recorded in the May-July 2021 period. DTM observed that ‘despite the overall decrease in the total caseload of IDPs across the country, a total of 9,866 IDP individuals arrived to assessed locations in the August-September 2021 period’: 2 446 became displaced for the first time, 6 302 arrived from other displacement locations, and 1 118 became re-displaced again.³⁷⁰ Moreover, 56% of the recorded IDPs originated from Ninewa (especially from Mosul, Sinjar and Al-Ba’aj), while the second and third largest groups originated from Salah Al-Din and Anbar.³⁷¹

According to IOM reporting up to 30 September 2021 through the DTM, there were

4 939 074 returnees across the country, with 54 462 returnees reported during August and September 2021 of the reporting period. This number of new returnees is the highest one recorded since November 2020. IOM clarified that ‘the higher number of new returnees in this round is due to a number of new returnees in Anbar governorate being counted in this round following the DTM teams accessing a number of locations there that had previously been inaccessible due to security issues.’³⁷² The highest numbers of returns took place in Ninewa, Anbar, and Salah Al-Din, with 1 008 people arriving to the districts of Sinjar, Ba’aj, Mosul, Makhmour, Baiji and Al-Shirqat from IDP camps.³⁷³ Finally, the districts that had the highest numbers of returnees were Mosul (Ninewa), Ramadi (Anbar), Falluja (Anbar), Tal Afar (Ninewa), Tikrit (Salah Al-Din) and Makhmour (Erbil).³⁷⁴

In its Humanitarian Bulletin of May 2021, UNOCHA stated that the Iraqi Government published in April 2021 the ‘National Plan to End Displacement under the auspices of the Ministry of Migration and Displacement and the Ministry of Planning’. According to UNOCHA, the Plan

‘notes that tackling the issue of protracted displacement in Iraq is one of the priorities of the current government, acknowledging that camp closures are a major objective, so long as the appropriate conditions are created for the return of IDPs to their areas of origin’. Moreover,

369 IOM DTM, IRAQ Master List Report 123 (August-September 2021), 26 October 2021, url, p. 1

370 IOM DTM, IRAQ Master List Report 123 (August-September 2021), 26 October 2021, url, p. 4

371 IOM DTM, IRAQ Master List Report 123 (August-September 2021), 26 October 2021, url, p. 4

372 IOM DTM, IRAQ Master List Report 123 (August-September 2021), 26 October 2021, url, p. 6

373 IOM DTM, IRAQ Master List Report 123 (August-September 2021), 26 October 2021, url, p. 6

374 IOM DTM, IRAQ Master List Report 123 (August-September 2021), 26 October 2021, url, p. 6

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the Iraqi government seeks to achieve long-term sustainability of returns and to promote alternatives to return in cases where return to areas of origin is not feasible.³⁷⁵

Since December 2019, the government of Iraq has closed several camps in different governorates³⁷⁶ in the context of a ‘months-long nationwide effort to bring an end to

displacement across Iraq’.³⁷⁷ The closures initially affected IDP camps in the liberated areas including Ninewa, Kirkuk, Salah Al-Din, Anbar and Diyala.³⁷⁸

In 2020, the Iraqi authorities closed all the IDP camps in Ninewa governorate (including Al-Jada 1, Al-Al-Jada 5, Al-Salamiyah 2, Mount Sinjar camp, and Hamma Al-Alil), two camps in Kirkuk (Yahyawa and Laylan), one camp in Salah Al-Din (Al-Ishaqi), three camps in Diyala (Saad camp, Al-Wand 1 and Al-Wand 2), and three camps in Baghdad governorate³⁷⁹ (Al-Ahl, Al-Shams, Nabi Allah, as well as the Virgin Mary complex in Zayouna).³⁸⁰ As of 8 December 2020, and according to USAID, 15 IDP camps were closed by the Iraqi government, and two camps (Habbaniya Tourist City and Zayona in Anbar and Baghdad governorates) were reclassified as informal. The source added that as of 10 December 2020, ‘34,000 individuals had been affected by the IDP camp closures in non-Kurdish areas of federal Iraq’.³⁸¹

In 2021, the closure of IDP camps continued; as on 9 January, the Iraqi Ministry

of Migration and Displacement announced the return of more than 3 261 IDPs, resident of the Slamiyya camps, Ninewa governorate, to their areas of origin within the governorate, namely Mosul, Baaj, Rabia, Tal Afar, Tal Abtah, Zammar, and Qayrawan.³⁸² As of February 2021, four IDP camps in federal Iraq remain open (according to UNOCHA, the camps that remained open in federal Iraq were: Jad’ah 5 in Ninewa, Ameriyat al-Fallujah in Anbar, and the two Latifiyah camps in Baghdad),³⁸³ and as of the end of June 2021, only two remained open.³⁸⁴ In the KRI, there are 25 IDP camps that host an estimated population of approximately 180 000 persons; according to sources, those camps are not expected to be closed.³⁸⁵

375 UNOCHA, Humanitarian Bulletin, May 2021, url, p. 1

376 Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Exiled at Home, June 2021, url, p. 11

377 New Humanitarian (The), Nowhere to go: Mosul residents in limbo as camps close, 11 March 2020, url

378 ARK, For Iraqi IDPs, no choice but to return, 1 February 2021, url

379 USDOD, Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve – Report to the United States Congress, October 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020, 9 February 2021, url, p. 46

380 Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Exiled at Home, June 2021, url, pp. 15-21

381 USDOD, Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve – Report to the United States Congress, October 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020, 9 February 2021, url, p. 46; see also: UNOCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview: Iraq, February 2021, url, p. 3

382 Al-Sumaria, ىونين ي ف مهقطانم لىا ًايعوط حزان فلاآ ةثلاث نم ريكأ ةدوع نلعت ةرجهلا [Ministry of Migration announces the voluntary return of more than 3 000 IDPs to their areas of origin in Ninewa], 9 January 2021, url

383 UNOCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview: Iraq, February 2021, url, p. 3; According to UNOCHA, the camps that remained open in federal Iraq were: Jad’ah 5 in Ninewa, Ameriyat al-Fallujah in Anbar, and the two Latifiyah camps in Baghdad

384 Cash Working Group, Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Camp closure Response Guidance note, June 2021, url, p.

2; HRW, Iraq: Inadequate Plans for Camp Closures, 3 June 2021, url

385 UNOCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview: Iraq, February 2021, url, p. 3; USDOD, Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve – Report to the United States Congress, October 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020, 9 February 2021, url, p. 48

64

The following map by UNOCHA shows the status of camp closures in Iraq as of 20 January 2021:

Map 5: Camp closure map (as of 20 January 2021) © UNOCHA 2021³⁸⁶ Attribution: “Map provided courtesy of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs”

The Iraqi government announced that camp closures were aimed at supporting voluntary returns of IDPs,³⁸⁷ and denied accusations of forced camps eviction.³⁸⁸ Al Jazeera, citing activists and aid groups on the ground in Ninewa governorate, stated that ‘the Ministry of Displacement and Migration had instructed the camp mukhtars – men who often serve as heads of their communities – to inform all families from Tal Abta, al-Mahalabiya and al-Jaban districts to depart immediately’.³⁸⁹ IDPs from three camps in Baghdad and one in Karbala that

386 UNOCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview: Iraq, February 2021, url, p. 4. Upon granting permission to reproduce the map, UNOCHA provided the following Disclaimer: “The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations".

387 Iraq, Government of Iraq, 19 April 2021, url

388 Reuters, Years after ISIS, Iraqis forced out of camps into uncertain future, 11 December 2020, url

389 Al Jazeera, Iraq: IDPs say they are being threatened to leave camp, 1 February 2021, url

65

were to be closed had two days to decide about returning to their areas of origin or staying in another camp.³⁹⁰ Reuters stated that the Iraqi authorities gave the residents of Al-Ishaki camp a 48-hour notice to leave the camp before its closure, and sent pick-up trucks and military vehicles to return people to their areas of origin.³⁹¹ Furthermore, UNHCR stated on 27 May 2021 that it ‘raised its concerns with the government, stressing that some of the closures were conducted without adequate notice and consultation with camp residents’.³⁹² NRC stated on 9 November 2020 that many of the IDPs ‘who have been forced to leave camps in Baghdad and Karbala in the past weeks’ ended up in ‘precarious settings on the edge of towns, in damaged, unsafe apartments or unfinished buildings, lacking basic necessities and health care, and forced into further displacement’.³⁹³

Many displaced families were not able to return to their areas of origin for reasons related to security, lack of housing and services, and livelihoods, and have been displaced to informal settlements.³⁹⁴ According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, many of the IDPs in Iraq ‘have moved to various locations or have been displaced again due to a failed return attempt leaving them to seek refuge in informal sites’ and ‘face challenging humanitarian conditions inside and outside the camps due to the lack of security, harsh living conditions, and their inability to meet the humanitarian needs necessary for survival’.³⁹⁵

According to ECHO, ‘The government’s closure of camps has worsened living conditions for displaced Iraqis. People returned to areas that lack services and security, leaving 590,000 of them in need of protection. Many moved to one of the 547 informal settlements with sub-standard shelters and facilities.’³⁹⁶

According to Human Rights Watch, ‘Despite the government’s stated aim to have displaced people return home, administrative hurdles prevent families with perceived ISIS-affiliation from getting documents, including identity cards, birth certificates, and ration cards.’³⁹⁷ For more information about the documents required for IDPs return please see 3.3 IDPs and returnees of the EASO COI Report: Iraq: Key Socio-economic Indicators (November 2021).

CCCM Cluster and Protection Cluster surveyed 17 401 individuals leaving IDP camps during the period September – November 2020, and found that 71% described their departure from the camps as voluntary and 29% reported that the departure was involuntary.³⁹⁸ Moreover, the Protection Cluster found in February 2021 that ‘41% [of returnees] were pushed into secondary displacement’ and that ‘even of those who did return to their immediate area of origin, 38% were not able to return to their previous residence’. The source added that ‘the governorates with the highest proportion of HHs [Households] who did not return to their place of habitual residence are Kirkuk, Ninewa and Diyala’.³⁹⁹

390 USDOD, Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve – Report to the United States Congress, October 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020, 9 February 2021, url, p. 46

391 Reuters, Years after ISIS, Iraqis forced out of camps into uncertain future, 11 December 2020, url

392 UNHCR, Returning Iraqis face dire conditions following camp closures, 27 May 2021, url

393 NRC, Iraq’s camp closures leave 100,000 people in limbo, 9 November 2020, url

394 Cash Working Group, Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Camp closure Response Guidance note, June 2021, url, p.

2; see also: UNOCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview Iraq, February 2021, url, p. 21

395 Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Exiled at Home, June 2021, url, pp. 11-12

396 ECHO, Iraq, n. d., url

397 HRW, Iraq: Inadequate Plans for Camp Closures, 3 June 2021, url; see also: ECHO, Iraq, n. d., url

398 CCCM Cluster and Protection Cluster, Camp Departure Follow-up Survey: Round 28, 19 November 2020, url, pp. 1, 2

399 Protection Cluster Iraq, Protection Monitoring System: Report 1, February 2021, url, p. 10

66 1.4.3. Infrastructure damage

According to Freedom House, ‘reconstruction of areas liberated from the Islamic State (IS) militant group’s control continued at a slow pace throughout the year’.⁴⁰⁰ The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) observed that reconstruction in Iraq

‘has not yet reached all parts of the country and several regions still lack public services’.⁴⁰¹ Areas of origin for returnees have been ‘lacking basic infrastructure, utility services, livelihood opportunities’.⁴⁰² According to UNOCHA, destroyed livelihoods in the areas of origin was one of the reasons behind limited returns of IDPs.⁴⁰³ The Global Shelter Cluster observed that around 1 million people in Iraq ‘remain in need of shelter and NFI [non-food items] support’, 530 000 of these are in acute need of humanitarian assistance. According to the source, since 2021 there has been a 60% decrease in the number of people in need for shelter and NFI support, and this was due to ‘a narrower definition of humanitarian shelter needs, focusing on people living in critical shelter, including tents, unfinished and abandoned structures, make-shift shelter, and non-residential, public and religious building; and in sub-standard shelters that pose risks to the residents’ health, safety and dignity’.⁴⁰⁴

ACTED stated that in Ninewa governorate, the lack of access to basic services, together with safety and security concerns, constitute a barrier to return. The source added that ‘a great number of schools have been destroyed or damaged. Roads are in a poor state and medical facilities also endured damages from the conflict’ in the area.⁴⁰⁵ The UN estimated over 8 000 homes in Mosul to be destroyed during the war against ISIL, and ‘mounds of debris’ were still visible in the city as of December 2020.⁴⁰⁶ As of August 2021, many buildings in Mosul ‘are still in ruins.’⁴⁰⁷

On 9 December 2020, AP stated that ‘Baghdad’s cash-strapped government fails to fund reconstruction efforts’.⁴⁰⁸ France 24, citing official sources, stated that ‘the cost of

reconstruction for Nineveh would top 100 billion US dollars, a staggering sum for a country mired in an economic crisis’.⁴⁰⁹ Moreover, of the circa 100 000 claims for compensation filed by the residents of Mosul whose homes were damaged during the war, ‘not even three percent have been paid’.⁴¹⁰

However, life was ‘slowly coming back to Mosul these days: merchants are busy in their shops, local musicians again serenade small, enthralled crowds’.⁴¹¹ Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD)⁴¹² monitored reconstruction efforts in Mosul between 2017 and 2020, and concluded that ‘results highlight the massive ongoing efforts for rebuilding Mosul, at different levels. In 2020, out of almost 17,000 buildings inventoried, only 7,000

400 Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2021: Iraq, n. d., url

401 SIDA, Sida’s work in Iraq, n. d., url

402 NRC, NRC in Iraq, n. d., url

403 UNOCHA, IRAQ HUMANITARIAN FUND 2021 1st Standard Allocation Strategy, 11 May 2021, url, p. 1; UNHCR, Returning Iraqis face dire conditions following camp closures, 27 May 2021, url

404 Global Shelter Cluster (The), Iraq, August 2021, url

405 ACTED, Rehabilitating infrastructures to help returnees build their life back in Mosul, 21 May 2021, url

406 AP, Iraqis slowly rebuild Mosul, with little aid from government, 9 December 2020, url

407 France 24, Iraq's Mosul struggles to rebuild without funds, 29 August 2021, url

408 AP, Iraqis slowly rebuild Mosul, with little aid from government, 9 December 2020, url

409 France 24, Iraq's Mosul struggles to rebuild without funds, 29 August 2021, url

410 France 24, Iraq's Mosul struggles to rebuild without funds, 29 August 2021, url

411 AP, Iraqis slowly rebuild Mosul, with little aid from government, 9 December 2020, url; see also: France 24, Iraq's Mosul struggles to rebuild without funds, 29 August 2021, url

412 A project funded by the European Space Agency ESA. Which constitutes ‘an ESA initiative to support the uptake of EO-derived information in sustainable development’: ESA, Earth Observation for Sustainable Development, n. d., url

67

showed no signs of evolution, 2,000 were cleared or dismantled, and 7,900 repaired or new.’

The source added that the majority of the reconstructed buildings were located in ‘former high density urban fabric areas’ and that the old city ‘also profited from intense efforts to rebuild.⁴¹³

In Salah Al-Din, the Global Coalition against Daesh⁴¹⁴ stated that around 100 projects were either finalised or close to completion, and that local authorities were able to ‘rebuild key infrastructure in the governorate allowing thousands of IDPs to resettle in their homes’.⁴¹⁵ According to Salah Al-Din Reconstruction Fund, in a video shared by the Global Coalition,

‘reconstruction projects cover various sectors in Salah Al-Din, including governmental buildings, education, electricity, water, sanitation, and all sectors of the state’.⁴¹⁶

In Anbar, ‘few overt signs remain of the destruction the war wreaked on Ramadi and nearby Fallujah’. However, reconstruction projects were underway, and were mainly funded by private investors.⁴¹⁷

In document Iraq Security Situation (Page 58-67)