Thousands Flee after Clashes Erupt in Embattled Iraqi Town

19 April 2022, Iraq, Dohuk: Iraqi Yazidis gather at the Lalish mountain valley during the celebrations of the Red Wednesday, which marks the Yazidi New Year. (dpa)
19 April 2022, Iraq, Dohuk: Iraqi Yazidis gather at the Lalish mountain valley during the celebrations of the Red Wednesday, which marks the Yazidi New Year. (dpa)
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Thousands Flee after Clashes Erupt in Embattled Iraqi Town

19 April 2022, Iraq, Dohuk: Iraqi Yazidis gather at the Lalish mountain valley during the celebrations of the Red Wednesday, which marks the Yazidi New Year. (dpa)
19 April 2022, Iraq, Dohuk: Iraqi Yazidis gather at the Lalish mountain valley during the celebrations of the Red Wednesday, which marks the Yazidi New Year. (dpa)

Thousands or people fled a northern Iraqi town amid fierce clashes between the army and an armed faction linked to a Kurdish separatist group, the military and local Iraqi Kurdish officials said Monday.

At least 3,000 people left Sinjar and its surrounding areas, the officials said, and headed farther north toward the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to seek asylum. They left when clashes intensified on Monday between the Iraqi army and the Yazidi Resistance Forces (YBS), a group with ties to the Turkish insurgent Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK.

Many were Yazidis displaced during the 2014 ISIS onslaught and are bracing for another round of violence after returning to their homes only a few years ago.

Most of the displaced were distributed across camps in the Kurdish region, said Pir Dayan, director of the migration and crisis response department in Dohuk province, in the Kurdish-run region. The Kurdistan government has formed a committee to deal with the situation.

The violence erupted when the Iraqi military launched an operation late Sunday to clear the area of YBS forces, most of them comprised of members from the Yazidi religious minority. By Monday, the fighting spread to other areas in Sinjar district.

In a statement, the Iraqi military said Monday the offensive was to dismantle YBS checkpoints erected in Sinjar that have prevented citizens from returning to their homes and undermined Iraqi state authorities. When Iraqi military units confronted YBS forces, the statement said, they were met with heavy fire, snipers and explosives-laden devices on the roads.

The YBS has controlled much of Sinjar since 2014 driving out ISIS from the district with assistance from the PKK. Their continued presence in the area has drawn the ire of Turkey, which has been battling the PKK since the 1980s. It has led to regular Turkish military offensives on Iraqi soil to root them out.

In October 2020, Baghdad and the Kurdistan government signed an agreement to jointly manage Sinjar to restore the state’s hold over the patchwork of militia groups and competing authorities in the area after the defeat of ISIS. But this has proven largely unsuccessful.



UN Seeks $6 Billion to Ease Hunger Catastrophe in Sudan

Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Seeks $6 Billion to Ease Hunger Catastrophe in Sudan

Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

UN officials on Monday asked for $6 billion for Sudan this year from donors to help ease what they called the world's worst ever hunger catastrophe and the mass displacement of people brought on by civil war.

The UN appeal represents a rise of more than 40% from last year's for Sudan at a time when aid budgets around the world are under strain, partly due to a pause in funding announced by US President Donald Trump last month that has affected life-saving programs across the globe.

The UN says the funds are necessary because the impact of the 22-month war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - that has already displaced a fifth of its population and stoked severe hunger among around half its population - looks set to worsen.

World Food Program chief Cindy McCain, speaking via video to a room full of diplomats in Geneva, said: "Sudan is now the epicenter of the world's largest and most severe hunger crisis ever."

She did not provide figures, but Sudan's total population currently stands at about 48 million people. Among previous world famines, the Bengal Famine of 1943 claimed between 2 million and 3 million lives, according to several estimates, while millions are believed to have died in the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-61.

Famine conditions have been reported in at least five locations in Sudan, including displacement camps in Darfur, a UN statement said, and this was set to worsen with continued fighting and the collapse of basic services.

"This is a humanitarian crisis that is truly unprecedented in its scale and its gravity and it demands a response unprecedented in scale and intent," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said.

One of the famine-stricken camps was attacked by the RSF last week as the group tries to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold.

While some aid agencies say they have received waivers from Washington to provide aid in Sudan, uncertainty remains on the extent of coverage for providing famine relief.

The UN plan aims to reach nearly 21 million people within the country, making it the most ambitious humanitarian response so far for 2025, and requires $4.2 billion - the rest being for those displaced by the conflict.