ICC Note:

Despite ISIS’ exit from Qeraqosh in October 2016, few families have returned home. A city with approximately 50,000 people living there pre-ISIS, now has about 180 families. A recent ICC survey of Christian IDPs showed there was confusion and uncertainty in IDPs desire to return home, but a greater percentage wanted to return than people who wanted to stay away. The uncertainty makes sense, Christians don’t know what group will take ISIS’ place, how the government will treat them, or what support they have in the rebuilding process.      

 06/28/2017 Iraq (Newsweek) – Three years ago, as darkness fell over the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, Sabah Petrus Shema helped his extended family pile into a pickup truck and leave town. When they were gone, he grabbed two Kalashnikovs and waited as the sound of mortar fire drew near. Miles down the road, the Islamic State militant groups (ISIS) was advancing.

By early the next morning, nearly all of the town’s residents were gone, and a stream of panicked soldiers began to pass through, retreating from the front. That’s when Shema knew it was time to flee. “It was a painful decision,” he says. “We were leaving behind our homes, our churches, everything. All we took was our clothes, our IDs and some money.”

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