Aid Gate Organization (AGO) conducted household assessments in Akre between 29 March and 5 April 2023. Questions were asked around social cohesion, conflict sensitivity, livelihoods, climate change and computer skills in order to learn more about the context in Akre. To complement these household assessments, AGO then organised Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with young men and women in the Akre Youth Centre on 11 April 2023. AGO was able to receive more information through these FGDs as they allowed for a smaller group to build trust and share more detailed information than through the household assessment. It also allowed for AGO to ask more follow-up questions in order to receive a better understanding of Akre.
Akre Background:
The town of Akre lies surrounded by mountains in the northeast of Iraq, within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The closest large cities are Dohuk, Mosul and Erbil. Akre is a disputed town, de jure belonging to the Ninewa Governorate (Federal Iraq) but de facto being administered by the KRI as part of the Dohuk Governorate. Checkpoints are controlled by the Peshmerga.
There is very little information available about Akre. There is evidence of an old castle or citadel on a mountain close to Akre, dating to at least 2,000 years ago. Akre was part of the Badinan Emirate and was in competition with the southern Soran Emirate. The conflict between these two emirates escalated in 1840 and saw widespread destruction of villages by Mohammed Kore. Inhabitants of Akre are mainly Kurdish and have different religions such as Zoroastrianism, Islam, Yezidism, and Christianity. The mountains around Akre are the main locations for celebrating Nawroz (Kurdish Zoroastrian New Year) on the 21st of March each year, which coincides with the vernal equinox, where both day and night are of equal length. The Mariam Adra Church ruins from around the 11th century AD can still be found in Akre, however, this church has been in ruins since 1840. The church belonged to the Chaldean Catholic Church. In 1955 a new church was built; however, the Christian communities did not return to Akre and in the 1980s uprising, Saddam Hussein destroyed Akre once again. Akre residents used to live in caves within the mountain and used some of the caves for religious purposes, such as the Mar Gorgis (Saint George) cave church which belonged to the Eastern Church. Remnants of an old synagogue can also still be beside the riverbed in the old part of Akre and old photographs from approximately 100 years ago show Muslim, Christian, and Jewish religious leaders standing peacefully together.
Although there is little information available on Akre itself, there is a Syrian refugee camp inside the town. Dohuk governorate contains 35 percent of the informal sites within Iraq (142 sites) (IOM DTM 2022).
Source: Relief Web