Jihadists displace over 200,000 Christians in Iraq, Pope Francis wades in

Islamic jihadists have taken over large areas of Christian dominated northern Iraq and have forcing up to 200,000 Christians to flee. They have also occupied churches, removed crosses and destroyed manuscripts.

A cleric told AFP: “The Christians have fled with nothing but their clothes, some of them on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region. This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied, their crosses were taken down”

In the meantime, Pope Francis has called on the international community to protect the mostly Christian communities of northern Iraq fleeing the lightning advance of the jihadist militants.

The pope joined the urgent appeals for peace from bishops in the Middle East and called on the international community to “ensure the necessary help” reaches people fleeing fighters from the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

The Jihadist militants took over Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town, and surrounding areas when Kurdish troops withdrew overnight, fleeing residents and Christian clerics said on Thursday.

“I now know that the towns of Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants,” Joseph Thomas, the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, told AFP.