Alarm raised over spate of Yezidi suicides in Shingal
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Duhok province's Khanke camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) is home to the Hassans, a displaced Yezidi family from Shingal.
Last month, the family lost 28-year-old Samir, a school physics teacher believed to have committed suicide by jumping into the River Tigris.
Samir had a BSc in Physics, and taught at the camp's school. His family have been left with no surface-level explanation for his apparent suicide.
"No one fought with him. He was doing well. He was getting on well with his brothers. Their financial situation was good. He had no problems," Samir's brother Hadi told Rudaw. He wasn't married, so it wasn't that he had family responsibility. He was doing well."
Camp officials aren't prepared to share data on suicides. Rudaw reporter Ayub Nasri spoke to a dozen sources, including NGO workers and managers at 14 IDP camps. From the data they provided, Nasri concluded that at least 15 Yezidis in Shingal have committed suicide since early 2019.
Many Yezidis suffered psychological trauma when the Islamic State (ISIS) group attacked their Shingal heartland in 2014. ISIS kidnapped more than 6,000 people and killed more than 1,200. More than 360,000 of the once 500,000-strong Yezidi community in Iraq fled their hometowns to camps for the displaced.
Harmful mental health repercussions have proven rife, with humanitarian organisations including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) appealing for assistance in dealing with "a severe mental health crisis, which includes high numbers of suicides and suicide attempts" in and around Shingal.
In a recent study conducted by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an international NGO offering psychotherapy to displaced people, 120 of 635 IDPs aged 15-25 were found to suffer from mental health problems.
"I can’t say a hundred percent of the suicide cases are caused by mental illness. I would say 90 percent of the cases are due to mental illness. When a social problem comes up and is not resolved, it will develop and lead to a psychological problem until they commit suicide.," JRS psychologist Firas Sleman told Rudaw.
Duhok’s Directorate of Displacement and Migration, which has been managing all 21 IDP camps in Duhok for three months now, has said it is investigating suicides at the camps.
"According to our plans and protocol, we are trying to reduce the number of the cases. We are setting a program in accordance with other directorates, including the Directorate of Health, the General Directorate for Combatting Violence Against Women, and all other relevant directorates to find a solution," Duhok displacement and migration director Manal Mohammed told Rudaw.
Viyan Ahmed is the Duhok province director of The Lotus Flower, an international NGO and a non-profit supporting women and girls impacted by conflict and displacement. The organisation has been working in Yezidi IDP camps in Duhok since 2014.
According to Ahmed, most of those who commit suicide are women.
“The number of the cases are too much, there are lots of suicide attempts in the camps which camp management doesn't record due to the social convention that it brings shame upon the family. That’s why they never reveal the attempts - even if a woman commits suicide, they will say she died of natural causes.”
The near exclusive focus on women who were subject sexual slavery and abuse at the hands of ISIS for programs of resettlement abroad or NGO support in Iraq has left other displaced Yezidi women neglected, Ahmed added.
“Those women were captured by ISIS group, and later released, live in a better condition. They are taken care either by their families or the NGOs. Some are given asylum in Canada or in the European countries, that’s why they live in better conditions than those who faced misery and difficulties during their displacement to the mountainous areas of Shingal. So cases [of suicide] of these women are growing higher than of those who were released from ISIS hands.”
Additional reporting by Ayub Nasri in Duhok
Last month, the family lost 28-year-old Samir, a school physics teacher believed to have committed suicide by jumping into the River Tigris.
Samir had a BSc in Physics, and taught at the camp's school. His family have been left with no surface-level explanation for his apparent suicide.
"No one fought with him. He was doing well. He was getting on well with his brothers. Their financial situation was good. He had no problems," Samir's brother Hadi told Rudaw. He wasn't married, so it wasn't that he had family responsibility. He was doing well."
Camp officials aren't prepared to share data on suicides. Rudaw reporter Ayub Nasri spoke to a dozen sources, including NGO workers and managers at 14 IDP camps. From the data they provided, Nasri concluded that at least 15 Yezidis in Shingal have committed suicide since early 2019.
Many Yezidis suffered psychological trauma when the Islamic State (ISIS) group attacked their Shingal heartland in 2014. ISIS kidnapped more than 6,000 people and killed more than 1,200. More than 360,000 of the once 500,000-strong Yezidi community in Iraq fled their hometowns to camps for the displaced.
Harmful mental health repercussions have proven rife, with humanitarian organisations including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) appealing for assistance in dealing with "a severe mental health crisis, which includes high numbers of suicides and suicide attempts" in and around Shingal.
In a recent study conducted by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an international NGO offering psychotherapy to displaced people, 120 of 635 IDPs aged 15-25 were found to suffer from mental health problems.
"I can’t say a hundred percent of the suicide cases are caused by mental illness. I would say 90 percent of the cases are due to mental illness. When a social problem comes up and is not resolved, it will develop and lead to a psychological problem until they commit suicide.," JRS psychologist Firas Sleman told Rudaw.
Duhok’s Directorate of Displacement and Migration, which has been managing all 21 IDP camps in Duhok for three months now, has said it is investigating suicides at the camps.
"According to our plans and protocol, we are trying to reduce the number of the cases. We are setting a program in accordance with other directorates, including the Directorate of Health, the General Directorate for Combatting Violence Against Women, and all other relevant directorates to find a solution," Duhok displacement and migration director Manal Mohammed told Rudaw.
Viyan Ahmed is the Duhok province director of The Lotus Flower, an international NGO and a non-profit supporting women and girls impacted by conflict and displacement. The organisation has been working in Yezidi IDP camps in Duhok since 2014.
According to Ahmed, most of those who commit suicide are women.
“The number of the cases are too much, there are lots of suicide attempts in the camps which camp management doesn't record due to the social convention that it brings shame upon the family. That’s why they never reveal the attempts - even if a woman commits suicide, they will say she died of natural causes.”
The near exclusive focus on women who were subject sexual slavery and abuse at the hands of ISIS for programs of resettlement abroad or NGO support in Iraq has left other displaced Yezidi women neglected, Ahmed added.
“Those women were captured by ISIS group, and later released, live in a better condition. They are taken care either by their families or the NGOs. Some are given asylum in Canada or in the European countries, that’s why they live in better conditions than those who faced misery and difficulties during their displacement to the mountainous areas of Shingal. So cases [of suicide] of these women are growing higher than of those who were released from ISIS hands.”
Additional reporting by Ayub Nasri in Duhok