Mosul, Iraq: Nowhere safe for civilians as battle intensifies

The battle for Mosul is growing fiercer every day. In the narrow streets of the city’s old quarter, tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped. Staying could mean dying, but trying to escape could mean dying too. To get out, Mosul’s families: men, women and children, have to run a gauntlet of shells, bombs, and bullets.

The ICRC is supporting Mosul General Hospital, now just a few hundred metres from the fighting. Patients are flooding in.

“This week and last week most of them are children,” says ICRC physiotherapist Guido Versloot.

“A lot of children, a lot of civilian casualties that we see here. Most of them, during the flight out of Mosul they were injured, or some of them even coming back to their house that should be safe, and there were still explosives in the house. But most of them are fleeing and on the way out they get injured.”

Mosul General Hospital once treated sprained wrists, and delivered babies. Today, almost every patient has been wounded in the conflict. The injuries caused when wars are fought in densely populated cities like Mosul are terrible, as ICRC nurse Ruth Mudasisan explains.

“Most of our patients are blast patients and gun shots, but the highest number of patients are due to blast injuries.”

The ICRC is calling on all parties to the conflict to do their utmost to protect civilians. The scars from a battle like the one taking place in Mosul are often, especially for the youngest, mental as well as physical.

“It’s not only the wounds, there are also a lot of psychological problems here” explains Guido Versloot.

“Everyone comes here with a story, of course, especially the children,” he continues.

“They want to talk a lot about it, and want to know if the parents are still there or the father or mother or brothers, so it is a lot of things around the normal work for my case as a physiotherapist. “

Mosul’s children will need a lot of support. Many have lost their homes, some have lost their parents too. The ICRC is trying to support war affected children to cope with a life that has changed forever.

“When you talk to the children they always cry, they say I want to go to my father, or I want to go home, and the mother says now there is no home” explains nurse Ruth Mudasisan.

“We have to be strong because we have to attend to them, and give them courage, and encourage them” she continues. “When they are here we let them feel at home, like this is just another home for them, not like they are patients, but they are part of us.”

Mosul’s children have no role in the conflict, they are not aggressors, or defenders, but simply children. It is up to all the warring parties to do everything they can to ensure that children are protected, that they remain unharmed. They are, after all, Mosul’s future.

Facts and Figures

The ICRC has been providing assistance to the affected population since the start of the Mosul Operation. More than a million people, including IDPs and host communities, have received food, essential relief items, clean water, medicine, and emergency medical treatment provided by the ICRC.

Download this footage from ICRC Video Newsroom
www.icrcvideonewsroom.org

For further information, please contact:
Sarah Alzawqari, ICRC Baghdad, tel: +964 790 191 6927
Ralph El Hage, ICRC Amman, tel: +962 77845 4382
Iolanda Jaquemet, ICRC Geneva, +41 79 447 37 26

To find out what the ICRC is doing to support people in Iraq, go to
https://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/middle-east/iraq

Follow the ICRC on facebook.com/icrc and twitter.com/icrc

SHOTLIST
Length: 2:55
Format: HD H264 mov
ICRC ref: AV655N_Mosul_Hospital
Date: May/June 2017

Copyright: ICRC access all

0:00 – 0:07 Mid shot air attack Mosul
0:07 – 0:14 Wide shot air attack Mosul
0:14 – 0:20 Battle in Mosul from hospital
0:20 – 0:27 Wounded patient on stretcher
0:27 - 0:32 Man carries young girl into hospital
0:32 – 0:36 Young boy on hospital bed
0:36 – 1:03 Soundbite ICRC physiotherapist Guide Versloot (English) “This week and last week most of them are children. A lot of children, a lot of civilian casualties that we see here. Most of them, during the flight out of Mosul they were injured, or some of them even coming back to their house that should be safe, and there were still explosives in the house. But most of them are fleeing and on the way out they get injured.”
1:03 – 1:06 Ward, staff and relatives around bed
1:06 – 1:10 Injured patient treated in busy hospital corridor
1:10 – 1:15 Wheeling injured patient into ward
1:15 - 1:20 WS ward
1:20 – 1:29 Soundbite ICRC nurse Ruth Mudasisan (English) “Most of our patients are blast patients and gun shots, but the highest number of patients are due to blast injuries.”
1:29 – 1:33 Young boy under blanket on stretcher
1:33 – 1:39 Toddler being treated
1:39 – 1:42 Two injured boys sitting on stretcher
1:42 - 1:45 Wide shot young boy in hospital bed
1:45 – 2:09 Sound bite Guido Versloot (English) “It’s not only the wounds, there are also a lot of psychological problems here. Everyone comes here with a story, of course, especially the children. They want to talk a lot about it, and want to know if the parents are still there or the father or mother or brothers, so it is a lot of things around the normal work for my case as a physiotherapist.”
2:09 - 2:13 Young boy stares up at camera
2:13 – 2:17 Wide shot ward, including children in beds
2:17 – 2:21 Very young children sitting alone
2:22 - 2:44 Sound bite Ruth Mudasisan (English) When you talk to the children they always cry, they say I want to go to my father, or I want to go home, and the mother says now there is no home. We have to be strong because we have to attend to them, and give them courage, and encourage them. When they are here let them feel at home, like this is just another home for them, not like they are patients, but they are part of us.”
2:44 – 2:48 Mother with two young girls
2:48 – 2:52 Young boy on hospital bed
2:52 – 2:55 Very young boy sitting on bed