Almost a decade has passed since the Yezidi genocide carried out by the Islamic State group in August 2014, yet the wounds are painfully fresh and the plight of the survivors remains largely unchanged. During a commemoration conference organized by the Yezidi organization Yazda and the Kurdistan Region Presidency in Erbil on August 3, the harsh reality of the situation was starkly evident. Emotions ran high during the conference, as several survivors shed tears while listening to the testimony of one of their fellow survivors.
“Political inaction over the last nine years, both nationally and internationally, has obstructed any chances for the [Yezidi] people to rebuild their lives and safely thrive in Sinjar. Today, the [Yezidi] people are much more vulnerable than when the genocide by [the Islamic State group] began,” said Zovighian Partnership co-founder Lynn Zovighian, the conference’s master of ceremony.
“The vision of [the Islamic State group] to ethnically cleanse this land of [Yezidis] is still on track to being realized! My fear for the [Yezidi] people is that the challenges of today and the pledges of solidarity we heard at the nine-year commemoration are aggravated and repeated at the ten-year mark of a genocide that sees no end.”
Nearly 200,000 Yezidis are still trapped in camps, while others are attempting perilous journeys to Europe in search of safety. According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the 42,000 people who have returned to Sinjar continue to face challenges.
“The overall rates of return to Sinjar remain low,” Deepika Nath, the IOM spokesperson in Iraq, told Diwan; “The primary barriers to returns include the destruction of infrastructure and homes across cities and villages in Sinjar and Qahtaniya, lack of availability of basic services, and limited access to running water, electricity, healthcare, and education, as well as livelihood opportunities.”
“The presence of multiple security actors in the area and weak presence of government civilian authorities also contribute to a sense of lack of safety,” Nath continued. Indeed, according to a recent Pentagon inspector general report, Yezidis returning to Sinjar face security threats from extremist groups.
Turkish airstrikes persistently target the Yezidi Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), which is closely associated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, further exacerbating fears in Sinjar. The YBS played a crucial role in rescuing Yezidis from the Islamic State in August 2014 and subsequently established its own parallel administration in Sinjar. Survivors from a Turkish attack on a Sinjar hospital last month launched a formal complaint before the United Nations Human Rights Council.
According to a June report by Human Rights Watch, political disputes also continue to hinder Sinjar’s reconstruction. Notably, the absence of a mayor in Sinjar has exacerbated the situation, and Western diplomats have called for the appointment of a new mayor.
UN Special Representative for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert expressed hope in her speech that the Provincial Council elections in Iraq on December 18 would stimulate an “important momentum” regarding longer-term governance of Sinjar.
“Returning to Shingal (Sinjar) is a very complicated matter when it comes to security, administration, and the compensation to the Yezidi people,” said Yezidi survivor Adiba Murad, who was abducted by the Islamic State for five years. “Unless these obstacles are removed, it is difficult to imagine Yezidis returning to Shingal.”
Murad went on to recall, “I was pregnant when I was abducted by [the Islamic State]. Fifteen members of my husband’s family were either killed or [are] missing until today. My daughter and I were released in 2019. The genocide has taken away all of our hopes to return to our homeland; how can we live on a land in which the bones of our fathers, brothers, and sisters are buried?” She added, “We have participated in many conferences and it has been only talk; and we have lost our hopes. We ask the Iraqi and Kurdish governments to resolve the Yezidi issue.”
The Sinjar Agreement, signed between Baghdad and Erbil in October 2020 to facilitate the Yezidis’ return and normalize the security situation and administration in Sinjar, has still not been implemented. Iraqi, Kurdish, and UN officials discussed the Sinjar agreement during a meeting in Erbil on August 20.
There have been a few positive developments. Since September 2022, over 600 survivors have begun receiving monthly compensation under the Yezidi Survivors Law adopted in 2021. Moreover, the United Kingdom recently recognized the Yezidi genocide. Nonetheless, many Yezidis remain without hope for a return.
Yezidi survivor Adia Ali, who lives in the Khanke camp in the Kurdistan Region, underlined that there “is no security in Shingal; every house [has] essentially [been] turned into a graveyard. The situation there is very challenging, there is little electricity and limited water. In winter and summer, we face many problems. Sometimes the tents catch fire. Three of my sisters live abroad and it’s only me living here.” Ali added that the people of Sinjar are very poor and “cannot repair their houses, they need compensation.”
Ali expressed skepticism that Yezidis would be willing to go home. “The Yezidis hope for Shingal to be free of problems, for the people to be compensated, and for the security threats to be removed. As long as these issues exist, Yezidis will not return to Shingal,” she observed. Ali added that her parents were still being held by the Islamic State, while the rest of her family lived in Germany. “There is no hope for me to return to Shingal. I would like to reunite with my family in Germany.”
Another major problem has been the absence of reconstruction. Last month, 27 Yazidi organizations launched an appeal to Baghdad for $1.5 billion in financial assistance to help Yezidis rebuild Sinjar. Only $38 million from Iraq’s annual budget of $153 billion was earmarked for Sinjar, Zummar, and the Nineveh plains.
Pari Ibrahim, the founder and executive director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, one of the organizations that supported the appeal, said that “despite Iraq’s enormous $153 billion budget for 2023, we still do not see any meaningful effort to rebuild Sinjar or provide sustainable solutions to Yezidis nine years later. We are asking for 1 percent of one year’s budget for Yezidi recovery. It is a modest demand, but domestic Iraqi politics for power and control have left genocide survivors out in the cold, homeless and hopeless.” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani recently promised to reconstruct the Koco village in Sinjar, but much more needs to be done in order for the Yezidis to return in meaningful numbers.
Sixteen-year-old Sana, who lives in Germany, expressed a sentiment shared by many Yezidis that there no longer is a place for Yezidis in Iraq. “We should be moved to other countries. Our lives in Iraq have been ruined. Our people do not have their own homes and they live in tent camps [in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region]. No one knows when the next tent will catch fire.”
Furthermore, more than 2,700 individuals are still missing, some in Islamic State captivity, while others have been traced as far as Palestine. So far, the efforts of a rescue office established by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani have led to the rescue of 1,208 women, 339 men, and 2,023 children. Barzani vowed to continue searching for the missing Yezidis until the last one was freed.
Survivor Sana said there are also still Yezidi women being held in Syria’s Hol camp, who cannot say they are Yezidi so as not to be identified. “They are afraid [of the Islamic State], and they should also return from Syria. I hope that the situation will improve for the Yezidis in Iraq, but it is very difficult to imagine this. Nine years have passed since the genocide and there has been no breakthrough,” she added.
Sana said she was seven when she was abducted by the Islamic State. “Three of my [four] sisters are in Iraq and Syria [and] one of them is still being held by the Islamic State. My father died of a stroke after hearing all the terrible things that were happening to Yezidi girls and women. I will never return to Shingal, because our houses have been destroyed and there is no hope for us to return there. We have lost many things, and there is nothing that would encourage us to return there.”
