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Anbar’s displaced Sunnis not safe from sectarianism

The wars in Iraq and the policies adopted after 2003 imposed new sectarian borders on the citizens, which are difficult to overcome in times of humanitarian crises.
Displaced Sunni people, who fled the violence in province of Anbar, settle at a mosque in Baghdad, April 19, 2015. More than 90,000 people have fled their homes in Iraq's western province of Anbar where Islamic State militants have been gaining ground over the past week, the United Nations said on Sunday. REUTERS/Stringer - RTR4XXH0

Following the battles between the Iraqi army and the Islamic State (IS), thousands of people have left Anbar province, most of them Sunnis. The United Nations announced on April 19 that over 90,000 people fled the province of Anbar in western Iraq and headed toward Baghdad and Shiite-dominated areas in central and southern Iraq.

This large wave of displacement and the humanitarian crisis it resulted in — a lack of accommodation, food and water — has raised the issue of displacement based on sectarian identity. Before this, the migration of citizens had a strict sectarian character; Shiites moved to Shiite areas, Sunnis moved to Sunni areas.

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