Over 10 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Iraq.

Two million of them were displaced by ISIL in 2014. The Department for International Development (DFID) is leading the UK’s humanitarian response to this crisis.

Through providing funding to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and other partners, we’re getting life-saving aid to thousands of people in need across northern Iraq.

Photographer Andrew McConnell travelled to the region in December 2014 to meet some of those being helped.

Wafaa, aged 50, holds her one-year-old-grandchild, outside their temporary accommodation in an unfinished building in Dohuk, northern Iraq. She fled her village in Sinjar in August 2014 when Daesh attacked it.

She lost her son in the chaos and doesn’t know if he’s still alive. She’s been here for 5 months now.

Wafaa’s story is all too typical of the many thousands of people who were forced to flee Daesh’s attacks in Iraq last year. Most of them fled their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing at the time.

Across the country, many hundreds of families took up residence in unfinished, abandoned or derelict buildings, as well as in temporary camps in more remote areas. As winter approached, the need to keep people fed, warm and dry became increasingly urgent.

In the summer of 2014, the UK responded to the rapidly growing number of people fleeing Daesh by allocating £23 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.

Emergency supplies including tents, shelter and hygiene kits were dropped by the RAF to thousands of people trapped on Mount Sinjar.

UK aid also helped to set up camps around Erbil and Dohuk for people who had fled the advance of ISIL. We’re continuing to provide food, shelter, water and medical care to thousands of vulnerable and displaced families across Iraq.

In November 2014, as winter approached and temperatures dropped below zero, more than a million people were identified as being in need of additional support. The UK committed an extra £16.5 million of assistance to provide essential winter supplies to tens of thousands of families.

Displaced in northern Iraq: Samir’s story

Samir describes how the people of his village had no choice but to leave everything behind and flee to the mountains as well.

“We soon ran out of food. We only had enough for 2–3 days”, he says.

It was 9 days before he and his family reached the safety of Zakho, in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. They’re now in a camp where they have shelter, and are receiving food, fuel and other supplies to help them cope with winter.

“It’s very hard thinking about home. I wish could see Sinjar again, free, as it’s always been”.

Zaido, aged 50, also fled with his family. They too hid on Sinjar mountain for seven days, before eventually escaping to safety in Kurdistan. At first they stayed in an unfinished building, then in a school for a month, before moving to a camp which is being supported by UNHCR and UK aid.

“When we arrived to the camp we were very happy”, says Zaido.

“We were given a tent. We also received kerosene fuel and food. Without these things I think we would be dead. We couldn‘t have survived.”

This one camp is made up of 147 families, over 900 individuals. Almost all of them are from Sinjar.

From Kobani to Kurdistan: supporting Syrian refugees as well

ISIL has also displaced thousands of Syrian families, forcing them to flee into Iraq too. This is on top of many thousands of other Syrians who had already been forced to become refugees in Iraq by the ongoing conflict in Syria over the past 4 years.

Warda, aged 60, and her family fled from the Syrian city of Kobani in November 2014, after ISIL attacked it. They’re now living in a refugee camp in northern Iraq.

“We crossed into Turkey first, then into Kurdistan. We fled the war”, she says.

“We left our houses, our belongings, our cars, our land. No one would flee their home for joy.”

As the cold weather set in at the end of the year, she‘s one of thousands of families who received extra aid funded by the UK and distributed by UNHCR.

The kits included stoves, heaters, kerosene fuel, and insulation material, to help them through the winter months to come, as Warda explains:

“When we first arrived there was nothing here. But we received food, fuel, mattresses and clothes. Without this support we wouldn’t even have been able to eat.

“Without the kerosene, I don’t think we could stay here. I think we would die from the cold.

“At least now we can feed our children”, she says.

Basic improvements to unfinished buildings

As well supporting those living in camps, we’re also helping many thousands of people like Wafaa, who have taken refuge in unfinished or abandoned buildings across northern Iraq.

The Khaleel family are living in an abandoned hotel. Their extended family is made up of 19 members who’ve been living here for the past 5 months.

Here, UK aid is helping the Norwegian Refugee Council to make basic improvements to buildings like these, fitting doors and windows, and building toilet and shower blocks — to make the buildings a little more inhabitable and protect people from the cold.

Giving dignity and choice as well as aid

In addition to relief items such as tents and clothing, UK support is also providing direct cash assistance to those most in need.

In Erbil, UNHCR Protection Officer, Gemma Woods, assesses displaced families to help them access unconditional cash assistance, as well as ensuring they are aware of their rights.

“I see that the cash assistance programme gives people a certain amount of breathing space in the initial months of their displacement, at a time when vulnerabilities are most pronounced,” says Gemma.

“We have spoken with many IDPs (Internally Displaced People) who were able to avoid eviction from the basic shelter they had been able to find because of cash assistance, or who were able to pay for medicines for chronic medical conditions which they were unable to cope without.

“Now that winter is here, many people have been able to prepare themselves with the cash assistance by buying winter clothes, or making improvements to shelters and purchasing kerosene.

“The fact that they are able to choose how to spend the money on what they consider to be their greatest need at that time also affords them a level of dignity which they report is greater than if they receive in-kind assistance.

The UK’s humanitarian support in Iraq is delivering essential supplies to vulnerable displaced families in need across the country.

Since June 2014, the UK has committed £129.5 million in humanitarian aid in Iraq, helping provide medicine and emergency kits to 150,000 people and psychological support to over 50,000 people. This includes an additional £50 million announced on 20 July 2016.

Our funding has also helped clear over 1 million square metres of land that was suspected of being contaminated with Explosive Remnants of War, to enable the establishment of 5 camps for displaced people.

It has also helped ensure that 4,500 families were sheltered from winter conditions, and provided emergency health support and increased access to safe water for thousands of vulnerable people.

We continue to support international humanitarian efforts to help the millions of people in need.

Find out more about the UK’s humanitarian response in Iraq, and see more of Andrew McConnell’s photographs here.

All images and videos: Andrew McConnell/Panos Pictures