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Press CentreBriefing note1 April 2003: What UNICEF said at the UN briefingTrucks, carrying 16 metric tonnes of medical supplies and 6 metric tonnes of water purification tablets and educational materials made their way into Northern Iraq.
Briefing by Geoff Keele, UNICEF Communication Officer, IRAQ Yesterday I told you about three children who were injured by a landmine in Garagow village in Dohuk. They are currently in a serious condition in the emergency hospital in Dohuk city. One child is in desperate need of eye surgery. Unfortunately, the hospital does not have the specialist staff to carry out the operation. All of the children were from Dohuk city, but fled to Garagow with their families where they felt more secure. Reports are that the mine is around 20 years old, a remnant from a past conflict. The children were seen playing with the mine before it exploded. UNICEF has been attempting to send humanitarian aid with privately contracted trucks into Iraq via different routes. So far, this has been carried out with varying degrees of success. Today, UNICEF can report that two trucks of essential humanitarian aid have made their way across the Turkish border and into Northern Iraq. The trucks, destined for Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniyah, are carrying 16 metric tonnes of medical supplies and 6 metric tonnes of water purification tablets and educational materials, valued at (US) $80,000. In the south, 4 tankers carrying a total of 150,000 litres of water managed to make their way beyond Um Qasr to Zubayr, 40 kilometres to the north. Zubayr is a town of 60,000 people amd it is the farthest this convoy, which left Kuwait on Sunday, has managed to reach. Deliveries in Zubayr were made to local hospitals and health centres which are making sure that the supplies get to those who need them most. It is important to note that the temperature on the border between Kuwait and Iraq is rising, and will be 38 degrees celsius, or 99 degrees farenheit, by the end of the week. In weather like this, the need for clean water, already acute, becomes more and more urgent. UNICEF's goal, quite simply, is to make sure that immediate humanitarian
assistance gets to the children of Iraq - wherever it is needed.
For further information please contact us:. Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF Iraq:
gkeele@unicef.org For interviews in the region, write or call directly to the UNICEF NewsDesk in Amman: (962-79) 50422058 •
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