VIDEO: Hundreds of IDPs arrive at Peshmerga front line in Kirkuk

Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived on Sunday at a Peshmerga front line in the southwestern Kirkuk Province of the Kurdistan Region.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived on Sunday at a Peshmerga front line in the southwestern Kirkuk Province of the Kurdistan Region.

The IDPs fleeing were mostly women and children.

Hemin Dallo, a Kurdistan24 reporter, spoke to some of the IDPs during a live broadcast on Kurdistan24 TV.

The displaced people mentioned that living conditions under the Islamic State (IS) control was very challenging in the Hawija region.

Moreover, the group of IDPs noted that food was very expensive in their area, and they mostly spent life inside their homes.

They also revealed they walked for hours to reach the Peshmerga front line in Maktab Khalid, southwestern Kirkuk.

One of the Peshmerga Commander’s whose name was not mentioned said while the IDPs were escaping, an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by IS had detonated.

The Commander said several people were killed and many injured as a result of the explosion.

 

 

Following the arrival of the IDPs, Peshmerga forces and humanitarian organizations began to help them by providing food and water.

Peshmerga forces explained that providing support to the displaced people looking for help was the Kurdish forces’ “humanitarian duty.”

In June 2014, IS emerged in northern Iraq where they began their terror campaign leading to hundreds of thousands of people being forcibly displaced.

The Kurdistan Region is currently home to 1.8 million IDPs and refugees.

Kirkuk Province, which borders with Hawija, continuously receives IDPs.

The Province is home to almost half-a-million displaced people who escaped from IS insurgents.

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Hemin Dallo contributed to this report from Kirkuk)