Third of Iraqis Need Critical Aid

A third of Iraq's population—some 8 million people—are in critical need of emergency aid because they have no food, water or shelter, according to an OXFAM report detailed in the BBC. Trapped in a maelstrom of sectarian violence, the Iraqi government is unable to provide basic needs. Some 4 million Iraqis have either been displaced from their homes or have fled the country.

Some 15% of the population can't regularly afford to eat. Nearly 30% of Iraqi children are malnourished. "Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," said the director of Oxfam. Meanwhile a special congressional investigator told the BBC that corruption is Iraq so widespread it is equivalent to "a second insurgency." (More poverty stories.)