Yezidi farmers return to their farmlands

Displaced farmers in Iraq's Duhok are reunited with nearby farms, after a lockdown kept them separated for weeks.

Because of the coronavirus, a lockdown had kept displaced people in Duhok confined to their camps for over 40 days. But local authorities have given them access to the land around their camps once again.

Since then, hundreds of displaced Yezidis have returned to the farms to work their land. Among them is Hawas Zeydo, who says the way farmers are working and interacting with one another has changed.

"You can sense that the corona(virus) situation still has a presence here," he says. 

"We still keep a two-metre distance and we don't work close to each other," Zeydo adds.

Over 594,000 refugees and internally displaced people live in 21 different camps across Duhok, according to the Board of Relief and Humanitarian Affairs in Duhok governorate. The majority of the displaced people in Duhok are Yezidis from Shingal, while the refugees are Syrian Kurds.

The displaced farmers were allowed to return to lands in Duhok days after the governorate celebrated its declared victory over the virus. Since that celebration on April 22, a new case of the virus was discovered.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has 381 confirmed cases and 5 deaths from the coronavirus. Across Iraq, there are 1,928 confirmed coronavirus cases and 90 deaths, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

 

Reporting by Associated Press