Christians in Mosul are marking 10 years since ISIS seized control of the town and surrounding Nineveh Plains, causing hundreds to flee in fear.
Over 13,000 Christian families fled to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region moderately than stay and face the brutality of ISIS, says Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil. Mosul was finally liberated in 2017 after a fierce battle which left much of the town in ruins.
In the ten years since ISIS swept in, around 9,000 families have now returned to the Nineveh Plains due to international aid that has made the reconstruction of their homes possible, the Archbishop told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
“Churches are being filled again,” he said, and “so many children” are preparing for his or her first Holy Communion.
“All those sad and terrifying memories are still there, but at the least [the Christian families] could start constructing and showing that the longer term is in [their] hands,” he said.
Despite this progress, “the pressure of being a minority is real” and lots of Christians have either left Iraq or are planning to go away. The young especially need assistance to seek out work. They “ask for jobs, not simply to receive donations,” he said.
“I ask my people simply to be patient and persevere,” he said, adding that he would really like to see the UK government remind Iraqi politicians that they “care concerning the minorities – Christians, Yazidis and the remaining”.
International Christian Concern (ICC) said that there are only around 50 Christian families living in the town of Mosul today.
An ICC staffer said that Christians had a crucial role to play in re-building Mosul.
“The city is in great need of Christians to come back and help rebuild the town and seek the peace of the broader Nineveh region,” they said.
“The city is prepared for brand new beginnings, and Christians have a possibility to do this with a greater sense of freedom and security than has been possible for greater than twenty years.”
