He said the vast majority of villages around Qayyarah had been retaken since special forces launched the operation on Tuesday.
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Mosul is Iraq’s second city and had an estimated population of around two million before IS took it over in June 2014 in an offensive that sparked large-scale displacement.
According to the report, some 3.38 million people have been displaced since January 2014, with many uprooted several times.
“In Mosul we believe the displacement situation may be about to dramatically worsen”, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a briefing in Geneva, saying the agency needed more land for camps.
It warned that preparations to the 1.2 million people who could be affected by the military offensive will therefore be limited.
Thus, the Daesh terrorists have been fiercely resisting the fall of cities and towns near Mosul, because they are well aware that the liberation of Mosul by pro-government forces will be a major blow to their presence in Iraq.
He said contingency plans had been drawn up to provide shelter for up to 120,000 people fleeing conflict in Mosul and surrounding areas, while UNHCR was looking to set up six new camps across northern Iraq.
He also said there is a dispute between military and political administration in the U.S. over how to react to developments in Iraq and Syria when it comes to the role played by Russian Federation and Iran in both war-stricken Arab countries.
Recapturing the town is vital for the security forces which will use the town and the nearby airbase as a staging ground to free Iraq’s last major IS stronghold in Mosul, which itself located some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. He coupled the warning with a plea for donations, saying the refugee agency’s Iraq budget of $584 million was only 38 percent funded as of August 2.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said more than 200,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since March and that the “even worse is yet to come”.
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He also warned that “finding available land for the new camps has become a critical issue”, as many landowners were unwilling to lease land. Locations may also be deemed inappropriate in areas where displaced Iraqis might inflame ethnic, sectarian, religious or tribal tensions.UNHCR leads the coordination and management response for protection, shelter, non-food items and camps.
