The closure of camps in Iraq housing Yazidis displaced by IS attacks is postponed, an official says

Associated Press

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The Iraqi government has postponed an order to clear out camps in the country’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region that house thousands of people who fled when the Islamic State group seized their home areas a decade ago. Earlier this year, Baghdad ordered the camps to be closed by July 30 and offered payments of 4 million dinars, or about $3,000, to occupants who leave. Kurdish authorities refused to implement the closure order, saying that the areas the displaced people fled from — in particular, the remote district of Sinjar, the historic homeland of the Yazidi religious minority — are not suitable for returns.