Ezidi radio presenter found in Syrian camp four years after ISIS kidnapping

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recently found a locally-famous Yezidi (Ezidi) woman in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria camp, more than four years after she was kidnapped by the Islamic State in Iraq, a local rescue office said on Monday.

A presenter for Jabal Sinjar (Sinjar Mountain) Radio, Navin Rasho is a 25-year-old Ezidi woman from the town of Sinjar (Shingal) and was taken captive by Islamic State members when the group overran northern Iraq in mid-2014.

As the terrorist organization began to be pushed back in Syria, more and more people were liberated from their control. The group’s territorial collapse finally came in March after a drawn-out siege by SDF fighters on the last sliver of land the group held.

Many rescued individuals were transported to the various camps throughout the areas managed by the SDF’s political wing, namely northeastern Syria, so that processed individuals may be returned to their original areas. Rasho was among those recently liberated.

A statement from the Ezidi Rescue Office in Syria said that the woman would be returned to her hometown and parents ”in the near future.”

The emergence of the Islamic State and its violent assault on Iraq’s Ezidi-majority city of Shingal in August 2014 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of members of the Ezidi community and the killing of thousands more.

According to official numbers from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the number of Ezidis freed from the terrorist group since 2014 has reached over 3,300, but some 6,284 Ezidis were kidnapped, among them 3,467 women and 2,717 men.

Editing by Nadia Riva