A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northern Iraq, where minority groups are facing potential genocide. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since January, including an estimated 650,000 people when the northern city of Mosul was seized by Islamic State fighters in June.

This is just one of several violent conflicts going on in our world today. As in Gaza, Nigeria, South Sudan, the Ukraine, and the Central African Republic, World Renew is responding to the urgent needs of people affected by this escalating conflict.

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northern Iraq, where minority groups are facing potential genocide. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since January, including an estimated 650,000 people when the northern city of Mosul was seized by Islamic State fighters in June.

This is just one of several violent conflicts going on in our world today. As in Gaza, Nigeria, South Sudan, the Ukraine, and the Central African Republic, World Renew is responding to the urgent needs of people affected by this escalating conflict.

World Renew is responding through a local Christian partner in the Kurdish regional capital city of Erbil, where many of the minority groups have fled.

In Iraq, people are fleeing from the violent group known as, “the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS), which was grown out of al-Qaeda in April 2013. It has since been disavowed by al-Qaeda, but has become one of the main jihadist groups fighting government forces in Syria and Iraq.

ISIS has announced the establishment of a "caliphate," an Islamic state across parts of Iraq and Syria, and they have forced many minority communities from their homes. According to the BBC World News, ISIS has gained a reputation for brutal rule in the areas that it controls, yet it was its conquest of Mosul in June that sent shockwaves around the world. The US has said the fall of Iraq's second largest city posed a threat to the entire region.

The minority groups being attacked by ISIS include Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Shabak Muslims, Shia Muslims and some Sunni Muslims. Men, women and children from these communities  have fled their homes.  In fact, UN officials have said that there are approximately 200,000 refugees  seeking sanctuary in the autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north from the Islamic extremists that have been pursuing them.

The city of Qaraqosh, south-east of Mosul, was home to around 50,000 Christians and most have fled in the past week as the convoys of extremists drew near. These families have found some assistance. The Kurdish army, for example,  is offering some protection for displaced people.The U.S. and Iraqi military have also dropped food and water supplies.  Much more is still needed.

In recent days Kurds from neighbouring Syria battled to open a corridor to the mountains, allowing some 45,000 people to escape. Between 20,000 to 30,000 men, women and children however remain trapped on Sinjar Mountain surrounded by Islamic State forces.

World Renew is responding through a local Christian partner in the Kurdish regional capital city of Erbil, where many of the minority groups have fled. The response includes providing emergency items such as temporary shelter, mattresses and blankets. The partner also has medical teams of pharmacists and nurses who will be providing emergency medications to people with desperate health needs.  Over the coming weeks World Renew will work with other members of the Integral Alliance to develop and coordinate an expanded response.

“World Renew is committed to responding to the plight of these displaced people of various faith backgrounds” explains World Renew’s Director of International Disaster Response. “Please consider donating to meet the needs of these people who literally have nowhere else to go. Please pray for an end to this senseless and horrific violence, and pray for strength for our brothers and sisters as they face this horrible trauma.”

Please join World Renew in praying  for an end to the escalating cycle of extreme violence against Christians and others that is occurring in Iraq.

To support this emergency response, please donate online.*

Select "Iraq Conflict" from the International Disaster Response category

Cheques marked “Iraq Conflict 2014” can also be sent to:

World Renew US
1700 28th St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49508
Tel: 1-800-552-7972

World Renew Canada
3475 Mainway
P.O. Box 5070 STN LCD
Burlington, Ontario, L7R 3Y8
Tel: 1-800-730-3490

*If you would like to support World Renew’s response to various conflict situations in addition to the one in Iraq, please mark your gift “International Disaster Response – Wherever the Need is Greatest.”

 

PHOTO: Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, re-enter Iraq from Syria at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal