Iraq’s ghost villages: Islamic State drove people away – now a new enemy is preventing their return

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In northern Iraq, nearly a decade after the Islamic State conflict, ghost villages remain abandoned due to climate-induced extreme heat and water shortages. The climate crisis now poses a greater challenge to residents' return than the previous conflict, severely impacting local communities in Sinjar district.

Nearly a decade after fighting ended in northern Iraq, the climate crisis has brought extreme heat and a water shortage, making life almost impossible The first thing that strikes visitors arriving in Faka, a small village in Sinjar district, northern Iraq, is the silence. No children play in the streets. No shops are open. Roofless houses stretch across the hillside, their walls pockmarked by shellfire, while weeds and wild grasses grow through collapsed living rooms. A decade after Islamic State (IS) swept across the region, war remains visible everywhere. But according to the people who returned, another enemy has quietly taken its place. Rajab Mohammed says the problem in his village of Faka is no longer Islamic State but water and jobs Continue reading...