Nineveh Plains Reconstruction Process

When ISIS was militarily defeated in Iraq in 2017, the challenges facing Christians were enormous: there were 20,000 registered families who fled only from the Nineveh Plains and nearly 15.000 homes to be rebuilt. The lack of housing was impeding Christian families from returning to their liberated, but heavily damaged, towns and villages in the Nineveh Plains. For that reason, in early 2017 a modern-day ‘Marshall Plan’ aiming at restoring dignity, through housing rehabilitation, and offering employment opportunities was launched.

All Churches united behind the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee (NRC) to coordinate the reconstruction process. As of mid-2020, more than half (8,166) out of 14,828 Christian houses registered for the reconstruction have been repaired. ACN, through the NRC, provided 6.5 million Euros for the reconstruction of 2,860 houses in six locations in the Nineveh Plains (nearly 35 percent of houses restored until now). The reconstruction efforts continue – and need to be expanded – as more Christian families seek to return, despite many challenges such as: security concerns, Kurdish-Iraqi political manoeuvring on the ground, infrastructure shortages. The number of families, who are in the region and who would like to return is estimated at more than 2,000.