Earlier this year, I took my first-ever trip abroad and landed in Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous region that stretches across northern Iraq, touching Syria, Turkey, and Iran. I arrived in Kurdistan with no first-hand knowledge of the region, taking with me only what I’d read about the Kurds and their vital contribution to the fight against Daesh, the self-proclaimed Islamic State. What is less discussed, and the most impactful takeaway of my time in Kurdistan, is the outsized humanitarian burden the region is shouldering.

Tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad came to a head after a Sept. 25 referendum in Kurdistan: 92 percent voted in favor of the region’s independence from Iraq. The referendum exposed the deep mistrust that’s been boiling under the surface for years. Both governments have struggled to build interdependent but functioning post-Saddam societies while coping with an economic slump, all compounded by the terror and massive humanitarian crisis the jihadi cult left in its wake.