Despite nearly $300 million in U.S. assistance, many Christians and Yazidis see little future in Iraq.
By Tamer El-Ghobashy Tamer El-Ghobashy Baghdad bureau chief focusing on Iraq's politics, security and the fight against the Islamic State Email Bio Follow March 31 at 2:19 PM #redindia1 video{position:absolute;width:100%} BATNAYA, Iraq — More than two years after Islamic State militants were ousted from this ancient town in northern Iraq, only one man has returned.
And for Iraq’s Sunni Muslims, whose communities bore the brunt of the Islamic State occupation but have received little reconstruction help from the United States, the miserable conditions could seed a new round of militancy. The money is being distributed slowly and through patronage networks riven with corruption and bedeviled by rivalries among politicians and the armed militias that fought the Islamic State, Iraqi and Western officials say, further delaying the process.
The rise of the Islamic State in 2014 accelerated an exodus to the United States and Europe that continues to this day and threatens a permanent demographic shift. About 200,000 Christians remain in Iraq, compared with 1.5 million before the U.S. invasion in 2003. 'Giving hope' In an effort to keep Christians and Yazidis in their ancestral homelands, President Trump last year signed into law the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act — providing for funding of stabilization projects in communities targeted for genocide by the Islamic State.
And in some places, like the large Christian city of Hamdaniya, the program has encouraged many residents to return. USAID’s logo is visible on a myriad projects, including the restoration of a large hospital and silver garbage dumpsters that dot the city’s streets. 'This is a huge problem' Essam Behnam, the mayor of Hamdaniya, said the USAID and U.N. programs, along with private donations from American Christian groups, have helped bring back about half of the city’s original 60,000 residents.
Primorac, of USAID, said the absence of government-provided security in areas freed from the Islamic State poses the greatest challenge to USAID activities and the return of people who were forced out or fled the militants.
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