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Dr Maria Rita Corticelli journeys to the Ninevah Plain north of Mosul in Iraq to meet Father Ghazwan, a parish priest who has battled to save his Christian congregation following persecution from the Islamic State group. Like other religious minorities, Christians in the region were given a stark choice by IS - flee, convert to Islam, or be killed. As a consequence, the number of Christians in Iraq has fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to around 200,000. These are some of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world. In Alqosh there are families who trace their history in the small town back 2,000 years and still speak the language of Jesus – Aramaic. Yet some observers predict Christianity could be extinct in Iraq in 20 years. Christian towns across the Ninevah Plain remain in ruins. Thousands of refugees who sought sanctuary in Erbil and Alqosh – the only Christian town not to be taken by IS ­– are still not able to return home. Many see no future in Iraq. Others have faith Christianity can rise from the ashes of the devastation. ‘Just as gold becomes stronger when you put it in the fire, this is our faith,’ says Najib Michael Mousa, Archbishop of Mosul.

(Photo: A cross is propped up against a wall outside a destroyed church)