UN: 'Worst is yet to come' with 400,000 trapped in west Mosul
An estimated 400,000 Iraqis are trapped in the Islamic State-controlled Old City of west Mosul facing food shortages and growing panic under shelling that could provoke a mass exodus, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday.
Many civilians fear fleeing because of Islamic State snipers and landmines, but 157,000 have reached a reception and transit center since the Iraqi government offensive on west Mosul began a month ago, it said.
"The worst is yet to come, if I can put it this way. Because 400,000 people trapped in the Old City in that situation of panic and penury may inevitably lead to the cork popping somewhere, sometime, presenting us with a fresh outflow of large-scale proportions," said Bruno Geddo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Iraq.
