“Today, we will hand over five women and a 13-year-old child to the Shingal Council and Yezidi Women League,” Mahmoud Rasho, administrator in the Yezidi House in Hasakah, told a press conference Thursday, according to Hawar News, a media outlet close to the ruling Kurdish authority of northern Syria.
Rudaw English has not named the women or the minor in order to protect their right to anonymity.
Riham Hassan, deputy head of the Yezidi Women League told the press conference they were thankful to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for rescuing the women.
“Of course the suffering through which these women have passed will never be forgotten. We as the people of Shingal will not forget either,” Hassan said.
The media outlet did not say whether or not the women and girl had been found in the overcrowded al-Hol camp, which the Red Cross described on Thursday as “apocalyptic”.
As the SDF advanced into the last ISIS holdout of Baghouz, Deir ez-Zor province in March, thousands of women, children, and militants flocked out. Among them where scores of Yezidis who had been held as slaves since they were abducted from Shingal in neighboring Iraq in 2014.
ISIS seized vast swathes of northern Iraq in the summer of that year, capturing Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul and the Yezidi homeland of Shingal. There it committed genocide against the ethno-religious minority, killing thousands of men, kidnapping women, and selling them into sexual slavery. Many children were indoctrinated to become soldiers.
Of the 6,417 Yezidis kidnapped by ISIS, some 3,369 have been rescued, but the fate of the remaining 2,992 is unclear, according to Yezidi Affairs Office in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments.
The Yezidi House was established by Kurdish authorities in northern Syria as Yezidis flocked out of ISIS captivity.
Dozens of Yezidis have already been handed over to the Shingal Council.
One of those rescued was a Yezidi journalist who endured years of suffering.
The fate of many more is unknown.
Children born as a result of rape by ISIS militants also face an uncertain future. The highest religious authority for Yezidis, the Spiritual Council, has refused to accept these children into the community, saying it will only accept the mothers. As a result, many women have chosen to leave the community in order to keep their children.
Tens of thousands of Yezidis displaced by the conflict today live in camps in the Kurdistan Region province of Duhok. The KRG announced new funding for the community on Wednesday.
“Today the second phase of support and funding will begin to be distributed on the Yezidi survivors by both the interior ministry of Kurdistan Regional Government and the immigration and migrants’ ministry of the Iraqi federal government in a joint project,” Ismail Muhammed Ahmed, Duhok provincial representative for displaced people and refugee affairs told Rudaw Wednesday.
“The funding support will be distributed to more than 889 Yezidi women survivors, each and every one of which will receive 2,000,000 IQD ($1,677). However, we ask the Iraqi federal government and Kurdistan Regional Government to continue and keep on helping the Yezidi survivors mentally and financially,” he added.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, who was then prime minister, opened a Yezidi Affairs office in 2014 to help find Yezidi women in ISIS captivity and pay ransoms for their release.
However, Yezidis have always criticized both the KRG and the Iraqi federal government for the lack of Yezidis representation in the parliaments.
Yezidis have also criticized both governments for neglecting Shingal. Security concerns and a lack of jobs and public services have prevented many from returning. Many have chosen to emigrate or to remain in the Kurdistan Region.
With reporting from Mohammed Rwanduzy and Lawk Ghafuri
