Politics

80 percent of Yezidi territories are unsafe for the IDPs to return: Official

The mayor of Sinjar said on Monday that 80 percent of the areas populated mainly by the Yezidis lack the security needed to allow the return of displaced members of the ethnoreligious group.

Mustafa Shilani 2020/08/03 22:13

middle east Iraq Kurdistan Ezidi Yezidi Sinjar ISIS genocide

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The mayor of Sinjar (Shingal), Mahma Khalil, stated on Monday that 80 percent of the areas populated mainly by the Yezidi ethnoreligious minority lack the security needed to allow the return of displaced members of the group.

The mayor's statement came on the sixth anniversary of the Yezidi (Ezidi) genocide in 2014, in which thousands of people were brutally murdered, kidnapped, and trafficked at the hands of the so-called Islamic State.

"Although six years have passed since the terrible genocide campaign against the Ezidis by ISIS, returning home is still slow because of the lack of security and services and the absence of the federal [Iraqi] government's support," Khalil said.

He noted, "80 percent of the Ezidi areas in Nineveh province do not have security and stability and are still languishing under the rubble left by ISIS and the liberation campaign."

The mayor called upon the international community to respond to the humanitarian concerns of the Ezidi people and called for support.

Ezidis Neglected

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights called on the federal government to rebuild the Ezidi areas to foster a safe return for members of the community.

The body said that the authorities have so far found more than 83 mass graves that contain remnants of Ezidis members of the terrorist organization killed in their murderous campaign.

"After more than three years since the liberation of Shingal, the majority of these mass graves have not been unearthed," which, the commission said, is a mark of negligence and bureaucratic inefficiencies by the entities the government has tasked with the process.

The commission stressed "the necessity of ending these pending files and compensating the victims' families," and rebuilding homes that were destroyed by the Islamic State or during the process of liberating the Ezidi areas.

It also called for the restoration of Shingal's infrastructure and to intensify international and regional efforts to rescue and reconnect kidnapped Ezidis with their families.

Editing by Khrush Najari