Hollywood A-list actress, Angeline Jolie was in northern Iraq on Sunday, 25th January, assessing the refugees situation there in her capacity as a special envoy for the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR). As a UNHCR representative, she has visited the war-torn country many times and her last visit was in 2012, before ISIS took wide swathe of the country.
On Sunday, she gave a press conference at the refugee camp in Dohak, the autonomous region of Kurdistan. She specifically pointed to the lack of funding for the refugees’ program and encouraged international communities not to neglect the aggravating humanitarian situation there by increasing their funding commitments.
“I’m shocked by what I’ve seen today. This is my fifth visit to Iraq since 2007 and the suffering is worse than anything I’ve seen in that time,”…..”We are being tested here as an international community and so far, for all the immense efforts and good intentions, the international community is failing,” she told reporters at a camp.
Jolie continues: “UNHCR received only half of the funding it needed in 2014 for programmes in Iraq and Syria and is extremely concerned at the slow pace of pledges for this year. Without more assistance, the situation is unsustainable.”
Photo Credit: Reuters