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SARDASHT CAMP, Iraq – Yazidi residents of Sardasht camp on Mount Sinjar (Shingal) are struggling in the winter cold.
Camp residents say they have been abandoned by both the government and aid agencies since the Iraqi government announced in October 2020 that all camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) would have to be shut by the end of the year. Many say their homes in Shingal are in ruins, and that they can’t afford to rebuild them. Shingal is lacking in basic services and in security.
From 2014 – when ISIS took over swathes of northern and western Iraq – there were 174 IDP camps in Iraq, according to a spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement.
The spokesperson said on Wednesday that 146 camps have been shut so far, and 28 remain left open – 26 of which are in the Kurdistan Region.
Reporting by Samya Hassan
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
Camp residents say they have been abandoned by both the government and aid agencies since the Iraqi government announced in October 2020 that all camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) would have to be shut by the end of the year. Many say their homes in Shingal are in ruins, and that they can’t afford to rebuild them. Shingal is lacking in basic services and in security.
From 2014 – when ISIS took over swathes of northern and western Iraq – there were 174 IDP camps in Iraq, according to a spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement.
The spokesperson said on Wednesday that 146 camps have been shut so far, and 28 remain left open – 26 of which are in the Kurdistan Region.
Reporting by Samya Hassan
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
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