AKRE, Kurdistan Region — Mohammed Mahmood has worked as a baker for 41 years. He has kneaded dough and baked bread through war and conflict, in his hometown and as a refugee. 

In 2013, when his native Syria was engulfed in civil war, the 61-year-old fled his hometown of Amuda, a Kurdish town in Hasaka province, close to the Turkish border in a region known to Kurds as Rojava. He sought refuge in the Kurdistan Region. 

He now lives in a refugee camp in Akre, Duhok province where, for seven years, Mahmood worked as a labourer. But after the coronavirus pandemic left him jobless, his son opened a bakery in the camp. 

“I am very happy as I returned to my work. I love my work. My son knew how much I was in love with this profession, that’s why he opened up this bakery. I had my own bakery shop in Amuda but now I am an assistant at my son’s bakery,” said Mahmood on February 22.

“I work from 8 am to 1 pm and I earn about 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqi dinars ($5.50 - $6.85). It’s hard to return to Rojava because the prices have gone higher there. I now live here with ten of my children,” he added. He has a total of 14 children. 

There is little money in the camp and business in the bakery is limited. Some customers bring their own dough to be baked in the bakery’s oven. 

Akre refugee camp is located in the town of Akre in Duhok province. It was opened in August 2013 and his home to 276 Syrian refugee families. 


Photos by Bilind T. Abdullah
Translation by Sarkawt Mohammed