Australia will provide a further $5 million of life saving assistance to the people in Iraq, who continue to suffer from ISIL's terrorist activities.
There are now more than 5.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Iraq. Over 2.2 million of these have been driven from their homes due to ISIL terrorist attacks and are living in temporary shelters.
The $5 million will enable the World Food Program in Iraq to provide food for approximately 350,000 people for the next month. This food assistance is critical as Iraq is now in the middle of winter and local communities have lost their harvest due to the ongoing attacks by ISIL.
Australia's funding will provide critical support for women and children who continue to be disproportionately impacted by the ongoing violence in Iraq.
This new contribution will bring Australia's humanitarian assistance to Iraq to $22 million since June last year.
4 January 2015