Some five million people need urged aid, UN says, including 1.8 million internally displaced people and 1.7 million in conflict areas. As winter approaches, the situation will get worse. An earlier fund-raiser failed to meet its target.

Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The United Nations on Thursday launched a US$ 2.2 billion appeal to assist 5.2 million people who need protection and assistance in conflict-torn Iraq, as do those in Syria.

"The needs of the Iraqi people are immense," Neill Wright, the UN's acting humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in Baghdad.

The United Nation's revised response plan said there are 1.8 million displaced people nationwide, 1.5 million in the communities hosting the displaced and 1.7 million people living in conflict areas outside of government control who need help.

"An estimated 2.8 million people are in need of food assistance and approximately 800,000 people are in urgent need of emergency shelter assistance," a UN statement said.

Many of the hundreds of thousands who fled successive waves of violence this year, mostly perpetrated by the Islamic State jihadist group, have found refuge in autonomous Kurdistan.

Winter temperatures in the mountainous region can range from 5 to -16 Celsius and the United Nations has repeatedly voiced alarm at the fate of many displaced who still lack shelter.

In addition to the 1.8 million displaced, the United Nations stressed there were more than 200,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq, as well as an estimated one million Iraqis previously displaced due to violence over the past decade.

A similar appeal made earlier by the world body aimed at raising funds for refugees in Iraq and Syria failed to reach its target.

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