On a construction site between the two richest neighbourhoods of Erbil in Iraq lives a Yazidi family that fled Sinjar from Islamic State. In 2014, Sinjar got international attention when IS executed thousands of Yazidi men. After that, more than 40,000 Yazidis were trapped in the Sinjar Mountains for days without food or water. The Kuti family escaped. In Erbil there was no place for them in the camps so they were forced to look for their own place. With minimal resources and the help of a few charity organisations they managed to built their own improvised neighborhood: Sinjar City. In a sense it has everything one needs; electricity and water; television and a toilet complex; and a playground. But being unable to leave the construction site and a lack of daily acticity, boredom is just around the corner. Most of them just hang around the construction site waiting to go home. This project was made in collaboration with photographer Sebastian Forkarth.
Built with Berta.me
©Sanne Zurné