Iraq After ISIL the real challenge begins As the campaign to reassert government control over territory held by ISIL gathered pace in 2016, so too did the deepening of Iraq’s humanitarian crisis. The widespread military offensives taking place against the group caused almost 660,000 new displacements. Around 3 million have fled their homes since 2014.41 How the security situation develops and the humanitarian and development sectors respond to this latest phase of Iraq’s crisis will go a long way to determining whether IDPs will be able to rebuild their lives in a sustainable way, or whether they will be exposed to a new phase of violence and secondary, potentially longer-term displacement. Anbar and Salah Al Din governorates witnessed the greatest number of returns in 2016. The security environment in the newly retaken areas SPOT LIGHT remains fragile, however, and government oversight and control is still limited. Other armed groups have filled the vacuum left in ISIL’s wake, and those trying to go back to their homes have faced numerous challenges and protection risks. Efforts to re-screen returnees have tended to be irregular and rarely monitored, and there have been credible reports in both governorates of abductions, detentions and the torture of people suspected of affiliation with ISIL. Others have been barred from returning to their homes altogether or have had them demolished or appropriated to be used as forms of compensation. Returnees also face the danger posed by unexploded ordnance, an absence of basic services and a lack of livelihood and education opportunities.42 Qayyarah was retaken from ISIL by Iraqi forces on 2 August 2016 and was declared as the base for future operations to retake the city of Mosul. ISIL set fire to oil wells south of Mosul. Photo: NRC/Wolfgang Gressmann, September 2016 ON THE GRID: Global internal displacement in 2016 19