113000 refugee families return to Anbar: government official

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) More than 113000 displaced families have returned to their homes at the province of Anbar after fleeing the region to Islamic State militants, according to the province’s migration department.

Out of those, 57.000 families returned to the Ramadi, and 28000 others to Fallujah, according to department director, Mohamed Rashid.

The emergence of Islamic State militants in Iraq in 2014, the proclamation of its so-called “Islamic Caliphate” and the consequent bloody abuses by the group of civilians and opponents, forced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to flee homes to refugee camps in other provinces.

The Ministry of Migration and Displacement said last week that the number of refugees from Nineveh and Kirkuk’s Hawija reached 80.000. Meanwhile, the United Nations estimates more than 3 million internally-displaced people in Iraq since January 2014.

Other Iraqis are still stranded inside regions held by the Islamic State, and have recently reported to suffer stinging shortages of daily livelihood under the extremist group’s rule.