MALCOLM, Neb. (AP) — Refugees from northern Iraq have established a national cemetery in southeast Nebraska.

About 250 people gathered Saturday to celebrate the establishment of the new 20-acre Yazidi Cemetery.

The land was bought for $150,500 in October by the United Yezidi Community of America, a Lincoln nonprofit aiming to unify the Yazidi community.

Yazidi people are ethnically Kurdish and have long faced persecution for their religion, the most recent being the 2014 genocide by the Islamic State in northern Iraq.

The nonprofit’s website says Lincoln has the highest Yazidi population in the country. Co-founder Khalaf Hesso says the cemetery is for all Yazidis in the United States.

Nonprofit President Alias Aldakhi says the cemetery binds the community together and gives its roots in Nebraska.