Several local NGOs close down in Mosul

At least five local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have recently closed their offices in Mosul, 390km north of Baghdad, as a result of increased violence against aid workers and volunteers, according to sources within the NGO community.

Of the five, two provided humanitarian assistance to displaced families, one dealt with women’s rights and the other two were working with children. One of the latter was supporting children with cancer or psychological problems.

“We had to stop our work in Mosul after three aid workers from local NGOs were killed by extremists… in displacement camps,” said Saluwa Abdel-Aziz, a member of a Mosul-based NGO, Iraqi Voices of Freedom.

The five local NGOs - Mosul Human Rights Association, Supporting Children With Cancer, Ruweida Aid Agency and two others which preferred not to be mentioned for security reasons - all received threatening letters telling them to stop their activities in Mosul, Abdel-Aziz said.

According to a local association responsible for registering local NGOs in Mosul, Tal Afar and nearby towns, humanitarian assistance in the region has been decreasing as aid workers are unwilling to offer their services under such threatening conditions.

Threats

“In the past four years we have been lucky to have had many volunteers offering their services to help displaced families or those living in extreme poverty. Many local NGOs were upbeat about their delivery of supplies but everything has changed in the past six months,” said Hanif Mazhar, a spokesperson of the Association for NGOs in Northern Iraq.

Mazhar said every week he had reports of threats of one kind or another to local NGOs with pressure being put on them to close their doors, though not all that received threats ceased their operations.

We had to stop our work in Mosul after three aid workers from local NGOs were killed by extremists.

Most of the local NGOs deal with displaced families, helping them to get shelter, food parcels and cooking gas. Children are given psychological support and pre-natal care. However, a number of families in vulnerable areas, including Tal Afar some 70km west of Mosul, have been without assistance for over three weeks and face disease owing to the lack of potable water, Mazhar said.

Mazhar said the security forces have not been supporting and protecting local NGOs, and that insurgents and militants do not respect the neutrality of aid agencies.

Restricted access

After recent attacks on members of the Yazidi minority near Mosul and the decision by local ethnic groups to fight al-Qaeda insurgents, aid workers said they had not been able to deliver humanitarian assistance to small villages around Mosul as tribesmen had prevented them from moving around, saying they might need to fight insurgents hiding in the villages.

Violence in Mosul, although less frequent than in southern and central Iraq, has intensified, according to the local police. Local authorities reported that on average 40 civilians or police, in a roughly 60:40 ratio, have been killed every week since June 2007 in violent incidents. The violence is mostly between Sunni insurgents and local police or Shia militants. Kurds and other minorities, such as Yazidis and Christians, are also attacked by insurgents, according to the police.

“Sectarian violence is present everywhere in this country and aid workers have been attacked by every fighting group. The local police hope they can offer protection but in many cases the areas visited by aid workers are more dangerous for police than for them,” said Col Yehia Abdel-Ghafur, deputy director of Al-Karamah police station.

Exploited?

Although the problem emanates largely from armed groups, aid workers said local police had been arresting their volunteers when they delivered supplies to areas where insurgents might be hiding.

Photo: IRIN

A map of Iraq highlighting Mosul in Ninawa Governorate

“As soon as we arrive from a displacement area, we are invited to go with a police officer to a nearby [police] station and give a full account of what we have seen and done in the area. They use us to get information about insurgents, increasing fighters’ animosity towards us,” said Omar Abdul-Karim, a volunteer for Iraqi Voices of Freedom which has received four threats since March 2007.

“We want to help Iraqis but we also have to look after ourselves. We have families and cannot take the risk of being killed by people who don’t understand the true neutrality of aid workers worldwide,” Omar added.

Local police for their part said investigations could be conducted with any group and sometimes information from aid workers helped bring security to some areas of the province.

“They are invited to help us. No aid worker is arrested or taken to prison if he doesn’t want to collaborate. It’s just a way of helping, for their own protection, too,” Abdel-Ghafur said.

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