GENEVA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqis are returning home in Mosul after years of violence to find their houses rigged with explosive devices and their cities uninhabitable, the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Tuesday.
MSF, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement that the destruction of buildings and infrastructure means that returning families, particularly in West Mosul, end up living in partially or totally ruined homes, with almost no access to clean water, electricity or medical care.
"What we see in our medical facilities are tell-tale signs of the living conditions outside," Geneva-based MSF quoted its project coordinator in West Mosul, Myriam Burger, as saying.
West Mosul was the scene of a fierce battle between the Islamic State terrorist group and Iraqi coalition forces earlier this year.
Until recently MSF said it was still receiving war-related injuries.
Yet more people begin to return home, it is seeing a stark increase in patients suffering from intestinal infections after drinking dirty water, and food poisoning due to lack of electricity and gas for refrigeration and cooking.
"Children especially are developing skin problems and rashes due to lack of hygiene and after playing in sewage water around burst pipes," Burger said.
MSF said unexploded ordnance and booby-traps have killed and wounded returnees.
In recent days, two teenage boys from a family of five were killed as they tried to move a rocket that was rigged up to explode in their living room in West Mosul.
Elsewhere in the city, a toddler was killed instantly and her older brother injured when she picked up a toy full of explosives. The family had just returned home for the first time since fighting ended in West Mosul.
