To encourage locals to return, the Makhmour education department has announced that they are ready to open schools if the number of students reaches ten in each village.
Before the brutal march of ISIS to the region back in 2014, nine families used to live in the village of Mahmar Omer. Only one family has returned.
Another empty village is Grdraw, situated east of Qarachough mountain in Qaraj, Makhmour. The school there is also shut. Eight families live there who are forced to send their children to schools in neighboring populated villages.
"Before Daesh came, we had 15 students in the village. After other people left, the school was shut. There are now five students left and we send them to the neighboring Dwsara village,” Zrar Khidir, resident of Grdraw village, told Rudaw’s Ranja Jamal last week.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land, including Makhmour, in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated following a fight with the Iraqi, Peshmerga, and coalition forces three years later.
However, the Iraqi army forced the Peshmerga out of Makhmour and other disputed areas in October 2017 after the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum. This development led to insecurity in Kurdish-inhabited areas.
There are a handful of Kurdish villages that are still populated. Those who have opted to stay are busy with farming and raising livestock. Due to a security vacuum in this area, Kurdish villagers have found it difficult to stay, Abdullah Tahir, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party office in Makhmour previously told Rudaw.
