The faces of displaced Iraqi Christians and Yazidis

This story appears in the Iraqi Kurdistan 2016 feature series. View the full series.
Three Iraqi kids flashing the peace sign at a displacement camp in Ankawa, Iraq. (NCR/Tom Gallagher)
Three Iraqi kids flashing the peace sign at a displacement camp in Ankawa, Iraq. (NCR/Tom Gallagher)

by Tom Gallagher

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This past week in speaking at the Rome headquarters of the U.N.'s World Food Program, Pope Francis said: 

Poverty has a face! It has the face of a child; it has the face of a family; it has the face of people, young and old. It has the face of widespread unemployment and lack of opportunity. It has the face of forced migrations, and of empty or destroyed homes.

Likewise, those Christians and Yazidis forced from their homes in Mosul, Qaraqosh and the Nineveh Plain due to genocidal attacks by ISIS during the summer of 2014, have a face. Below are some of those faces in photos taken by NCR journalist Tom Gallagher, during his trip to Iraq in April 2016.


Related: New York's Cardinal Dolan in Iraq: Embracing the displaced Iraqi Christians


[Tom Gallagher is a regular contributor to NCR on domestic and foreign affairs and is the lead writer for the newspaper's Mission Management column.]

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