MSF: Fallujah refugees face cholera risk

Medical aid agency MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders) said thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing the besieged city of Fallujah have been without access to medicine for months and are fleeing to areas without adequate water and sanitation, raising the likelihood of epidemics such as cholera.

MSF is assisting around 20,000 civilians from Fallujah who have fled to three main sites. The Islamic State group seized the city more than two years ago.

The head of MSF’s mission in Iraq, Fabio Forgione, said families who have fled to camps are facing a lack of shelter and clean drinking water. A cholera outbreak last year infected some 2,800 people in Iraq.