WAR REFUSES RULES

The fuse lit by the killing of General Soleimani has led to the expected consequences.

Last night, two military bases in Ayn al-Asad and Erbil, Iraq, were attacked by Iranian missiles. There are conflicting reports of casualties.

This is the logic of war. Once violence is chosen, it multiplies and spirals out of any control.

No more Congress votes are needed, no Security Council pronouncements: war now refuses any rules.

While we talk about geopolitics, strategies, alliances, we ignore the consequences of these choices on the people that will live this war – civilians – in an area of ​​the world already devastated by conflict.

Let’s stop this.

We ask the warring parties to cease before it is too late.

We ask Europe to act immediately to avoid another war and to categorically refuse any support for military operations.

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EMERGENCY’s projects in Iraq are located in the north of the country, a densely mined area on the border with Iran and Turkey. The original aim was to provide medical treatment and physical and social rehabilitation to landmine victims. However, our Iraq programme has grown in recent years to respond to the health needs that have emerged from the massive influx of refugees and displaced people fleeing the war in Iraq and Syria, and the fighting in Mosul.

Since the beginning of EMERGENCY’s activities in Iraq, over 11,000 people have received prostheses and there have been over 60,000 physiotherapy sessions. 400 artisan cooperatives have been founded by former patients with the EMERGENCY’s support. A referral service has been active at the Mosul Rehabilitation Centre since October 2017, leading approximately 500 new patients to be treated by EMERGENCY.