KRG’s Yezidi Rescue Office distributes aid to Yezidi survivors

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Friday, the office of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) dedicated to the rescue of the Yezidi (Ezidi) minority group captured by the Islamic State announced that it is distributing humanitarian aid to freed Ezidis.

"The office's work is not limited to trying to liberate kidnapped Ezidis, but to provide them with assistance," said Hussein Qaidi, head of the entity's branch in Duhok province. He added that the KRG, in coordination with the representative office of the Iraqi Immigration and Displacement Ministry in Duhok, launched an assistance distribution campaign last Thursday.

Qaidi noted that the mission was helping close to 3,500 people, providing them packages that included food, household items, and clothing, among others.

The process would continue "until all the survivors... are covered."

Since 2014, the Kurdistan Region's Ezidi Rescue Office has returned over 3,532 Ezidis out of the 6,417 members of the Islamic State kidnapped. Out of the total, 2,885 are still missing, 1,306 of them are female, and 1,579 are male.

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Ezidis were subjected to atrocities and mass executions at the hands of the extremist group for many years after the terrorist organization overran Shingal in mid-2014, forcing hundreds of thousands of the ethnoreligious minority to flee their homes. Others were not as lucky and remained stranded in the war zone.

The Islamic State is known for having subjected women to sexual slavery, kidnapped children for forced conversion, executed the men, abused, sold, and trafficked girls across areas they controlled in Iraq and Syria.

Editing by Khrush Najari