Iraq: Humanitarian Access Snapshot (December 2019)
Throughout December 2019, the Government of Iraq did not issue any national-level access authorization letters for NGO staff movements or supplies, thus preventing humanitarian actors from carrying out critical missions in support of Iraq’s vulnerable people.
Humanitarian partners reported 45 access incidents across 43 districts in December. Approximately 38 per cent of reported access incidents constituted restrictions on movements in the governorates of Ninawa; approximately 18 per cent of all incidents took place within Anbar Governorate while 13 per cent took place in Kirkuk Governorate.
The combination of lack of national-level access authorizations, along with continuing demonstrations in central and southern governorates, had a severe impact on the ability of humanitarian actors to conduct response operations. The low number of access incidents reported in December reflects the inability of many NGOs with expired access letters to reach their areas of operations.
To improve the accuracy of the representation of access challenges in Iraq, humanitarian organizations are encouraged to report all incident details to OCHA sub-offices.
