ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad said on Friday that the Iraqi government should help members of the ethno-religious group who have returned to their hometown of Shingal. Thousands of Yazidis were killed or kidnapped when the Islamic State (ISIS) seized control of Shingal and other parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014. Thousands of families were displaced to the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish-held areas in Syria. Murad, who is a survivor of the violence committed by ISIS and a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador, told Rudaw on Friday that 150,000 people have returned to Shingal but they need help. “150,000 people have returned to Shingal [but] the houses of many of them have been destroyed. They should be rebuilt so that they can start life again,” she told Rudaw’s Alla Shally. The activist said she saw this urgent need herself when she visited Shingal earlier this month with American actress Angelina Jolie. “I was in Shingal two weeks ago. People are in desperate need to rebuild their houses,” said Murad. Murad met with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Munich on Friday. She told Rudaw that she discussed with him the fate of 2,800 Yazidis who are still missing. “We know that these women and children are in Syria and some of them are living with ISIS families in Turkey. We hope that he [Barzani] can help us return some of them, and we could work together to help people return to their places,” she said.
