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CV NEWS FEED // Ten years after the ISIS genocide that devastated northern Iraq, the Christian communities of the Nineveh Plains find themselves facing a new and insidious threat. While the world commemorates the atrocities that peaked in 2014, when ISIS militants swept through Mosul and the surrounding region killing, enslaving, and displacing tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis, the security and future of these ancient minorities remain far from assured.
Nadine Maenza, a leading advocate for religious freedom and a global fellow at the Wilson Center, has authored an analysis raising alarm about the current situation in the Nineveh Plains.
In her piece for the Wilson Center, Maenza draws attention to the rise of Rayan Al-Kildani and his Babylon Brigade, a militia sanctioned by the United States that is now exerting control over the very areas once emptied by ISIS.
“While Christians mark 10 years since the ISIS genocide in Nineveh, US-Sanctioned Rayan Al-Kildani and his Babylon Brigade are taking over, displacing Christian communities once again,” Maenza wrote, underscoring the bitter irony that new forms of intimidation and displacement are replacing the old.
The influence of Kildani, Maenza argues, is pervasive and chilling. “It is difficult to find any negative articles about Kildani in local news any longer, showing his enormous power and the fear he instills,” she noted, describing a climate in which local media and political institutions have fallen under the sway of militia interests.
Kildani himself has publicly boasted about his role in recent political maneuvers, recently declaring on Alawla TV that “today we have restored rights to the people of Nineveh…” Maenza points out, however, that the real story—the replacement of officials with Kildani loyalists and the consolidation of militia control—is largely absent from local reporting, a testament to the intimidation that now grips the region.
For the Christians and other minorities of Nineveh, the consequences are dire. The Babylon Brigade’s presence at checkpoints and within local governance structures has led to renewed harassment and the erosion of fragile community trust. “Harassment of religious and ethnic communities at checkpoints by Kildani’s Babylon Brigade or others should not be allowed or tolerated. Those that violate the law should be prosecuted,” Maenza insisted, calling for urgent action by both Iraqi authorities and the international community.
Maenza’s critique extends to the political system that has enabled such abuses. She urges the Iraqi government to challenge the Nineveh Provincial Council’s decision to install militia-aligned officials and to reform election rules that currently allow outside interference in the political representation of minorities.
Maenza highlights the need for genuine self-determination among Iraq’s most vulnerable groups. “Election rules must be changed to protect the political representation of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in parliament so only minority community members can vote for their own representation,” she wrote.
The stakes, Maenza warns, could not be higher. “The US and the international community still have the political might to press for positive changes to protect these fragile religious minority communities, but they must act now.”
Her message is clear: the genocide that began with ISIS did not end with the group’s territorial defeat. Instead, it has given way to a new era of political manipulation, displacement, and fear—a reality that threatens to erase the very communities that have survived centuries of adversity in Iraq.
Reached by CatholicVote, Jason Jones, founder of the Vulnerable People Project (VPP), warned that “unless the United States intervenes immediately, the historic Christian city of Qaraqosh in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq will fall tomorrow, Thursday, April 17, to the U.S.-sanctioned, Iran-backed militia leader Rayan Kildani.”
“We urge President Trump or Secretary of State Rubio to immediately call Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to demand a halt to the removal of Mayor Matti and prevent Kildani’s hostile takeover of Qaraqosh,” Jones told CatholicVote. “This is a final test of America’s commitment to religious freedom and its allies—if we abandon Qaraqosh now, we send a message to persecuted communities everywhere that their survival is negotiable.”