Images of Christian Refugees Suffering Hardship in Northern Iraq

The National Catholic Register ^ | 9/29/16 | Edward Pentin

[marshmallow]

As ISIS invaded their towns and villages in the summer of 2014, tens of thousands of Christians fled to refugee camps, but the longer they remain displaced, the more they want to leave. On average, some 60,000 to 100,000 Christians have left Iraq every year since 2003.

Persecuted Christians in northern Iraq continue to suffer great uncertainty and live in poor living conditions after the Islamist group ISIS invaded their towns and villages in 2014.

Aware of their brutality, around 100,000 fled their homes in the middle of the night in the summer of that year, and many did so with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Most of them ended up in camps for internally displaced people in the region.

Last week, I joined an Aid to the Church in Need delegation to a number of the camps around Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, and others close to Duhok, about 50 miles north of ISIS-occupied Mosul. See my write up on what we saw here.

Here below are some images of a few of the Iraqi Christians and situations we encountered.

Two internally displaced boys at a catechesis centre in the village of Mangesh near Duhok, northern Iraq.

Syriac Christian Ashwa Jamal and her daughter Aura from Mosul. ISIS threatened them by saying if they didn’t flee and allow them to commandeer their apartment, they would kidnap Ashwa's husband, so they let them take the apartment, fled the city and ended up in the Dawudiya Refugee Camp near Duhok, northern Iraq.

Chaldean Father Ioshia Sana, parish priest of Mangesh, near Dohuk, northern Iraq. "Some feared at the beginning that ISIS would come here, but now we know they cannot come close, and thanks be to God they didn't........

[GOP Poet]

prayers up!!

[BenLurkin]

[floridavoter2]

I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t kept the plight of Iraqi Christians in my prayers. Got to change that! We take our own freedoms for granted, don’t we?

[cloudmountain]

Those folks should have “gotten outta Dodge” EONS ago. They knew the climate but stayed for many good reasons. Those reasons won’t mean a hill of beans if they are all dead.

[RitaOK]

God be with them.

I know Pope Francis has made it his mission to shed light on their suffering. /SNARK

I know Pope Francis has joined with nations and ambassadors and the denominations to join together and plea for their defense. /SNARK

I know Pope Francis has placed the Christian genocide in the Middle East at the top of his list, on his front burner, in his every homily, at the front end of every interview on the plane and off. /SNARK

[Biggirl]

Glad in a few months there will be a new sheriff in town and it will not be Hillary.

[Boowhoknew]

How about Catholic Charities loading up the FedEx plane with Christians instead of moslem “refugees”?
Let’s ask the head of Catholic Charities to explain the disparity in numbers of the make up of these refugees, and see what happens next..Will the church continue to divert money that CC gets from parishioners in the “Catholic Charities Appeal” to help non Christians while Christians in the Mideast continue to be targeted by “the religion of Peace”

[Boowhoknew]

How about Catholic Charities loading up the FedEx plane with Christians instead of moslem “refugees”?
Let’s ask the head of Catholic Charities to explain the disparity in numbers of the make up of these refugees, and see what happens next..Will the church continue to divert money that CC gets from parishioners in the “Catholic Charities Appeal” to help non Christians while Christians in the Mideast continue to be targeted by “the religion of Peace”