Provide Comfort - Operation Haven
- Duration
- 23 April 1991 - 31 January 1992
- Military personnel
- 1.138
- Fatalities
- none
- Decorations
- 3
After the Iraqi army had been driven out of Kuwait by a US-led international coalition in February 1991, the Shiites in southern Iraq and the Kurds in northern Iraq rose up against Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial Baath regime.
Kurdish refugees
The uprising was crushed ruthlessly by Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard. In northern Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled to the Zagros mountains for fear of reprisals. The refugees lived in the mountains in appalling conditions and every day thousands of children and elderly people died of cold, disease and lack of water and food.
Safe haven
With resolution 688, the UN tried to put an end to the humanitarian crisis. The resolution allowed for the provision of emergency relief, such as shelter, food and medical supplies, for the Kurdish refugees. For this purpose, a safe haven was created in northern Iraq, protected by a multinational military force of 25.000 military personnel: Operation Provide Comfort.