CHRISTIANS
SHABAK
TURKMEN
SUNNI ARABS
YAZIDIS
Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, thousands of Christian families have fled the country and thousands more have been internally displaced. The number of Christians in Iraq has fallen from approximately 1.5 million to 350,000-450,000. Many of these Christians had originally fled to Syria, but the civil war there forced them to return to Iraq.
 
They live primarily in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk, Mosul and Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, in the Christian quarter of Ainkawa. The Iraqi Christian community also includes Armenians and Assyrians. Some Christians in Iraq reside in the northern governorates of Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
 
The ancient community dates back to the first century, and although it did not flourish without problems, “it has celebrated an unbroken existence spanning almost two millennia”, writes Dr Suha Rassam, a Chaldean Catholic from Mosul, in her bookChristianity in Iraq.
 
Today, the Syrian Catholic Church and the Chaldaean Church are the leaders of Iraq’s Christian community, with a largely Arabic-speaking following who make use of the ancient Syriac language for worship.
 
Iraq’s Kurdistan region has opened its doors to more than 80,000 Christians since the most recent outbreak of violence in June, adding to the 10,000 Christian families already present in the Kurdish region. Locals in Erbil’s Christian neighbourhood of Ainkawa report a visible increase of displaced people in churches, schools and streets, while power and water are scarce due to the increase in demand.
Sources:
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Iraqi civilians have been dragged into the country’s civil war as the Islamic State group (formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL) has taken over large swaths of land across central and northern Iraq, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The onslaught this year has displaced many of the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, who fear for their lives following the Islamic State (IS) group’s proclamation of a caliphate in the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria. The fast-moving crisis means that a safe place one day can become a target the next.

While media attention has focused on religious groups persecuted by IS because they do not adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam, hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslims have also been displaced as a result of the violence. The Islamic State group’s takeover of Al Anbar governorate in January 2014 uprooted more than half a million Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, from their homes.

Since the beginning of the year, more than two million Iraqis have been displaced, more than half of them since the IS offensive that began in June.
Getty Images
Iraq’s exodus
Estimated population:
Number of displaced:
350,000-450,000
80,000+
Timeline: Iraq's minorities forced to flee