The Iraqi government, in collaboration with the UN, has provided thousands of tents for displaced residents from Mosul, Iraq’s Minister of Migration and Displacement Mohammed al-Jaf said Thursday (November 3rd).

The 100,000 tents will provide temporary shelter "pending the end of the battles and the residents' safe return to their homes", al-Jaf said in a statement.

The tents have been supplied with emergency shelter kits to ensure the comfort of the displaced, he said, noting that the number of the displaced population from villages and towns around Mosul has swelled to 21,000.

"We are working hard to create comfortable conditions for them in their displacement," he said.

In the town of Gogjali, on the eastern front line, a larger than usual numbers of civilians were seen walking to safer areas with little or no belongings, AFP reported Thursday.

"Some of the kids that arrive are barefoot, and they do not have sufficient water and food," said Alvhild Stromme, a media adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the most active aid groups in Iraq.

"People who come out, as they have for the last two weeks, are still telling stories of very dangerous escapes," Stromme said.

Some civilians were leaving Gogjali and others the eastern Mosul neighbourhood of Samah, and were recounting tales of jihadist brutality.

"We are coming from the world of the dead back to the world of the living," said Raed Ali, 40, who fled his home in the nearby village of Bazwaya.

"I lost two years of my life," said another man, aged 45, who gave his name as Fares.

"I sent my family to safety in Erbil two years ago but I stayed behind in our house in Bazwaya... I am finally out today. I will see my family again," he said.