The military defeat of Islamic State (IS) will not be enough to encourage displaced Iraqi Christians back to the cities, towns and villages from which the jihadists chased them, according to a senior priest in the region.
Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana, a priest in the Assyrian Church of the East and head of CAPNI (Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq), told CNN that a second mission is needed following the defeat of IS: to enact measures to ensure Christians can rebuild their lives in safety after the persecution they have suffered.
“What are the guarantees that it will not happen again?” he asked, noting that Iraqi Christians had been targeted not only since IS’s sudden appearance in 2014 but since the US-led invasion in 2003, after which he said the fabric of Iraq “was broken”.
CNN also published a photo essay, which tells the story of how many displaced Iraqi Christians living the Ashti camp in the city of Erbil, Kurdistan have lost hope of a decent future in Iraq.