IRAQ: Fallujah security crackdown preventing access for aid workers

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Source: Reuters

IRAQ: Fallujah security crackdown preventing access for aid workers
FALLUJAH, 19 June 2007 (IRIN) - A month-long security crackdown is preventing aid workers from getting to displaced families in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah and its outskirts, while a curfew imposed by US forces is restricting residents' ability to go out and buy much-needed supplies.

"We are living like prisoners, lacking assistance at all levels. Aid support, which last year was always here, can't be seen any more. We depend solely on ourselves, drinking dirty water to survive, even knowing that our children are getting sick from it," said Muhammad Aydan, 42, a resident of Fallujah, some 70km west of the capital, Baghdad.

"Power supply is less than two hours a day in some areas of Fallujah and sometimes we have to go three days without taking a shower to save water," Aydan added.

Local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said they had been denied entry to Fallujah by the Iraqi and US military as a security crackdown in the area, which started on 21 May, could put their lives at risk. The NGOs have called upon security forces to help in the delivery of aid to families who are in dire need of assistance.

Children getting sick

"We have supplies but it is impossible to reach the families. They are afraid to leave their homes to look for food and children are getting sick with diarrhoea caused by the dirty water they are drinking. We have information that pregnant women are delivering their babies at home as the curfew is preventing them from reaching hospital," Fatah Ahmed, spokesman for the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), said.

Read more: http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a62c201083421715743815013c59b55e.htm