Three new mass graves exhumed in Sinjar  

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Hundreds of Yezidis gathered on Saturday morning in the eastern part of the Sinjar district to witness the exhumation of three new graves which are believed to include the bodies of the faith’s followers, who were killed en masse by the Islamic State in 2014.

Located in Hamdan village, the three graves are expected to contain 40 members of the religious community, an informed source told Kurdistan 24.

The Yezidi Spiritual Leader, Baba Sheikh, attended the exhumation, along with hundreds of others mourning the death of their loved ones.

Yezidis held religious rituals at the beginning of the exhumation and during the funeral procession.

Thousands of Yazidis were killed, abducted and sexually enslaved in a genocide campaign in August 2014 at the hands of ISIS, whose self-proclaimed caliphate was defeated in 2017 in Iraq.

More than 80 mass graves have been identified in Sinjar, but only 39 of them have been exhumed, as the Iraqi forensic authorities complain about the lack of funds to complete the work.

Seven hundred corpses have been recovered since 2014, according to a Kurdistan 24 tally.

The Kurdistan Region still hosts more than 300,000 Yezidis in displaced camps, due to a lack of reconstruction efforts and insecurity in the Yezidi majority town.

European countries, including Germany, have hosted a significant number of Yezidis fleeing the violence. Nearly 10,000 Yezidis have been killed or kidnapped by ISIS.

The Region’s officials have pledged to continue working to rescue the remaining Yezidi women that have been relocated to other countries.