The Christian community shrunk to 250,000 from 1.5 pre-2003, IHCHR says
Shafaq News/ The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights issued a report on the Christian community's sufferings since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A member of the Commission, Ali Al-Bayati, said, in a statement received by Shafaq News that the Christian community of Iraq has shrunk from 1.5 million before the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein to only 250,000 now, less than 0.5 percent of the population, most of them sought refuge in Kurdistan Region.
He added, "40% of Christians returned from the region to the Nineveh Plain after the liberation of their areas from ISIS. There are also 15-80 families in Mosul."
According to Al-Bayati, ISIS atrocities against the Christian community led to "130,000 displaced, 115 dead, 161 kidnapped, 91 tortured, and 68 sexually enslaved," indicating that 1,315 Christians were killed between 2003 and 2014.
On the occasion of Pope Francis's visit, Associated Press published a panorama of what "two decades of back-to-back conflicts" did to "the ancient Christian communities that were once a vibrant and integral part of the landscape scattered and in ruins."
