Charity Helps Thousands Of Iraqi Christians Going Hungry, Displaced Or Bereaved

Christians at St George's Church in Baghdad had a relatively peaceful Christmas.FRRME

Aid workers from one charity alone are feeding 3,000 Iraqi Christians every month who fled from Islamic State to Jordan from their ancient homelands. 

The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East is also feeding a further 5,500 displaced Christians who are still in northern Iraq and surviving on aid, having also fled their homes.

And the same charity is helping feed tens of thousands more, many of them Muslims, in refugee camps in Iraq.

Yet despite the crisis, where numbers of Christians have plummeted since the Islamic State onslaught, St George's Church in Baghdad was packed over Christmas and New Year. Worshippers were able to celebrate in relative peace, according to the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, which funds the church's health clinic and also provides food.

St George's Baghdad was packed with worshippers over Christmas. Reurers

According to the latest figures from United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq, 386 Iraqi civilians were killed and a further 1,066 were injured in terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in December last year.

The Christian heartland of Nineveh was the worst affected region, followed by Baghdad.
In 2016 in total, the mission recorded a total of 19,266 civilian casualties: 6,878 killed and 12,388 wounded.