聯合國：近期將有20萬伊拉克人逃離摩蘇爾
The United Nations said Tuesday that 200,000 Iraqi civilians could flee an Islamic State-controlled part of Mosul in the coming days.
The Iraqi government on Thursday urged civilians in the Old City of Mosul to flee their homes and cross to safety on the other side of government lines.
"When they issued this new instruction it represented a dramatic change and shift from the guidance that they had been previously providing," said Lise Grande, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official in Iraq.
She said there are three neighborhoods to the north of the Old City, as well as the Old City itself, where the civilians are trapped.
"We are deeply concerned about the safety of these civilians," Grande told reporters by video link from Baghdad. "We feel those civilians are probably at greater risk now than at any stage of the entire campaign."
She noted that the evacuation notice is not compulsory, and the Iraqi Security Forces would protect civilians who remain in the Old City.
When the military offensive to re-take Mosul began in the eastern part of the city last October, the U.N. feared a mass exodus of as many as 700,000 civilians. It did not happen, as a half-million residents stayed in their homes and rode out the fighting.
But when the army began liberating the western part of the city, residents fled at a much higher rate. Grande says 774,000 Iraqis have left Iraq's second largest city, which has been under IS control since 2014. The U.N. is providing assistance to all of them, as well as the half-million east Mosul residents who remained in their homes.聯合國星期二表示，在接下來數天裏，可能會有20萬伊拉克平民逃離摩蘇爾由伊斯蘭國組織控制的地區。
伊拉克政府星期四敦促摩蘇爾老城的平民逃離自己的家園，越過界限進入另外一側的政府控制區尋求安全保護。
聯合國駐伊拉克最高人道救援官員格蘭德表示，“當他們發出這項新的指令時，與他們以前發佈的指導意見相比，代表着重大調整。”
她說，摩蘇爾老城及其北部的三個社區，都有平民被困。
格蘭德從巴格達通過視頻連線說，“我們對那些平民的安全深感憂慮。我們感到眼下那些平民可能比整個戰役的任何階段都要危險。”
她指出，疏散通知不是強制性的，伊拉克安全部隊將保護仍然留在老城內的平民。
重新奪回摩蘇爾的軍事行動去年10月在該城東部展開時，聯合國擔心會有70萬平民逃難，但是這種情況並沒有發生，50萬居民待在家裏，安然度過了戰鬥。
但當軍隊開始解放摩蘇爾西城時，居民卻大批逃離。格蘭德表示，有77萬4千人逃離了這座伊拉克第二大城市。摩蘇爾自從2014年以來處於伊斯蘭國的控制之下。聯合國正在對逃難的所有人以及摩蘇爾東城留在家中的居民提供援助。
