Humanitarian

UNHCR hails KRG for ‘welcoming’ civilians displaced by Sinjar clashes

Most of the 700 families displaced by the recent fighting had returned to Sinjar years after ISIS’s infamous 2014 genocide against the Yezidis.

Kurdistan 24 2022/05/04 15:12

A member of the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) distributes aid to the newly displaced people from Sinjar in Duhok province, May 2, 2022. (Photo: Handout/BCF)

Kurdistan Iraq Krg UNHCR Yezidis Sinjar IDPs Duhok Zakho Independent Administration Chamishko Camp

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, commended the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for welcoming civilians displaced by clashes between the Iraqi Army and militias in Sinjar.

“UNHCR commends the KRG for their welcoming stand,” the agency said in a statement shared with Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday by its representative in Iraq, Jean-Nicolas Beuze.

An estimated 700 families consisting of at least 4,000 people were displaced from the Yezidi-majority town of Sinjar following the outbreak of violent clashes on Sunday night, according to UNHCR figures. They sought sanctuary in the Kurdistan Region’s nearby Duhok province.

The Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) and Yezid Khan Asayish are two Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated forces that control parts of the war-torn town. Under the 2020 Sinjar agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Iraqi government aims to remove such militias from the area and establish a local security force in their place to pave the way for reconstruction and the safe return of displaced Yezidis.

Most of the 700 families displaced by the recent fighting had returned to Sinjar years after ISIS’s infamous 2014 genocide against the Yezidis. Now, they are once again back in camps in the Kurdistan Region.

Chamishko Camp in the Zakho Independent Administration in Duhok has hosted two-thirds of the displaced families, according to the statement.

There is “a risk of overcrowding and limited access to basic services due to a reduction of humanitarian funding,” UNHCR warned. The agency is working with the relevant authorities to upgrade the camps to reduce the severe dangers posed by the frequent outbreak of fires, which can prove devastating since many of the tents in these camps are highly flammable.

The Kurdistan Region has hosted over a million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict and ISIS atrocities.