The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that a total of 392,000 people had fled their homes since the Iraqi government offensive to push the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group from the city began in October. “No one is left for me over there so I came here … I cannot return to the house,” she told Reuters, sitting in the tent she shares with her brother’s family in the Hammam al-Alil camp, which is home to some 30,000 displaced people. Those who have fled Iraq’s second largest city describe a gruelling journey, where in some instances entire neighbourhoods have left together, often at daybreak, sometimes under mortar shelling or air strikes. The United Nations has said it is expanding camps for displaced people around the battered Iraqi city of Mosul as the number of displaced people hit 300,000, and a US-backed assault on ISIL there continued. In the first official remarks by the group referring to Trump since he took office, the Islamic State spokesman Al-Muhajer said: “... You (the U.S.) are bankrupt and the signs of your demise are evident to every eye.”

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The United Nations announces expansion of civilian camps for people fleeing Mosul, following resumption of airstrikes on ISIL-held portions of the Iraqi city.