Update for Thursday, March 23, 2017

UN High Commissioner for Refugees say 400,000 civilians are trapped in Mosul, facing food shortages and growing panic. Some 157,00 have managed to flee, and about 10,000 per day are currently escaping. The UN fears a sudden outflow for which relief agencies are not prepared.

Doctors Without Borders says medical resources for those fleeing are critically inadequate. Many have bullet wounds and blast injuries.

“The need for emergency medical care has risen drastically,” said Dr. Isabelle Defourny, MSF director of operations. “We have teams working around the clock treating men, women and children injured by bullets, blasts and shells. Other life-threatening emergencies also need a rapid medical response, such as for pregnant women in need of a C-section.”

MSF medical teams in a field trauma hospital, set up when the new push in western Mosul began, have received more than 915 patients, according to the statement. Of those, 763 suffered war-related trauma, 190 of whom needed urgent lifesaving surgery.

More than half of the wounded were women or children under the age of 15, it said.

An emergency field hospital 15 miles east of the city is filled with child victims.

Iraqi forces continue to make slow territorial gains.

Air strikes by U.S. coalition forces in support of the Iraqi offensive are said to have killed dozens of civilians. “The bombardment began at 01:00 and continued for four hours, ending at around 05:00 local time, with local sources confirming that no less than 50 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. Dozens more were wounded by the strikes.”

Afghanistan

 Taliban capture the city of Sangin, Helmand, where 114 British troops died before handing it over to Afghan security forces.

One third of Afghan children are out of school as violence and corruption degrade the educational system.

A police officer kills 9 of his fellow officers in Kunduz, and flees with weapons.