A new portal has been launched on the IOM Iraq Displacement Tracking Matrix website to provide up-to-date figures on populations displaced following the military operations launched on 17 October to retake the city of Mosul from the so-called Islamic State (IS).
To facilitate real-time information sharing for the Mosul response among humanitarian response stakeholders, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) “Emergency Tracking” will provide baseline displacement figures every 24 hours throughout the duration of military operations.
The new portal includes a dashboard, updated daily, which provides an overview of population movements taking place as a result of military operations to retake ISIL-held areas in and around Mosul. The dashboard will include an interactive map showing areas of displacement, as well as a statistical breakdown of internally displaced persons (IDPs) by governorate and by shelter categories.
Additionally, granulated data (governorates and districts of origin and displacement, shelter categories and location of identification) is available in its raw form, but is also tabulated into a summary that tracks daily changes in population movements.
The emergency tracking data will be used as the baseline by the humanitarian community to monitor displacement trends resulting from Mosul operations. Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) field teams from multiple agencies will use it as a baseline to launch Rapid Multi-sectorial assessments to further inform the humanitarian response.
Since the beginning of military operations on 17 October, 8,940 people have been identified as being displaced—over 3,200 have been displaced within the district of Mosul, and the rest are in the districts of al-Hamdaniya and Tilkaif in Ninewa governorate, al-Falluja in Anbar governorate and Makhmour in Erbil governorate.
“Information gathering, sharing and coordination are crucial elements of such a large scale humanitarian operation, which involves multiple humanitarian actors. DTM Emergency Tracking will provide a strong foundation to identify population movements, allowing a more targeted humanitarian response,” said IOM Iraq Chief of Mission Thomas Weiss.
The Emergency Tracking will also continue to issue figures on populations returning to recently liberated areas.
The DTM is IOM’s information management system to track and monitor population displacement during crises. It is used widely across humanitarian agencies as the primary source for up-to-date data, also covering hard to reach areas.
As of 24 October, DTM has identified over 3.2 million people who have been displaced from their homes across Iraq since the beginning of the conflict in 2014.