South Korea pledges over $10 million in humanitarian aid to Erbil, Baghdad

The South Korean government on Thursday announced that they are going to provide millions in new humanitarian assistance to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The South Korean government on Thursday announced that they are going to provide millions in new humanitarian assistance to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

The pledge ads up to $10 million to be allocated through UN agencies for humanitarian response and an additional $300,000 to provide medical aid to the Kurdistan Region.

"This medical assistance comes at a time when the health partners have closed several health facilities and support to the displaced people and they have decided to close all other health services if the required funds are not provided,” read a statement by the Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC), which manages aid response in the Kurdistan Region.

JCC Director General Hoshang Mohamed received Park Young Kyu, the Consul General of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in Erbil and incumbent Head of the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s (KOICA) Erbil office, Jonghyuk Park, to discuss the current humanitarian situation and the humanitarian assistance for Internally Displaced People (IDPs), refugees, and host communities.

The South Korean government has continued providing medical assistance for supporting the IDPs and refugees in the Kurdistan Region since the outbreak of the humanitarian crisis caused by the 2014 rise of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

After years of receiving people fleeing from the conflict, the Kurdistan Region remains a safe haven for over 1.3 million Iraqi IDPs and Syrian refugees, according to the latest figures released by the JCC.

Editing by John J. Catherine