The exhumation of a Yazidi mass grave in the Siba Sheikh Dari compound, 15 kilometers southwest of Shingal, Nineveh province, on November 17, 2025. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - As the exhumation of another mass grave began on Monday in the Shingal (Sinjar) district of Nineveh province, the families of Yazidi genocide victims are concerned about the slow pace of recovering their family members' remains.
Relatives say the identification process in Baghdad has been painfully slow, with some cases pending for more than three years.
“To delay the justice [identification of remains] is to prolong the genocide. It is a crime against humanity, a legal crime,” said Ali Sifok, a relative of one of the victims.
Sifok blamed the Iraqi government for being "very negligent," saying it is "unreasonable for a team opening graves to be alone."
"These remains should have been identified more quickly, after conducting DNA tests and after taking blood from the victims' families," he said.
In June 2014, Islamic State (ISIS) seized large parts of northern and western Iraq. In August, the group launched a brutal campaign against the Yazidi community in Shingal, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women, and abducting 6,000 to 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking.
Among those gathered at an exhumation site in Siba Sheikh Dari compound, 15 kilometers southwest of Shingal, was Kocher Yousif, a Yazidi mother who has lost seven members of her family. Standing beside the newly opened graves, she waits for the final extraction of their remains - a last chance to see them and bid them farewell.
“Buried here are my son and his father, and his uncle and all his cousins, milk-brothers. Seven from our family are laid here,” Yousif said.
“They reopen our wounds every day. This is the third time they have reopened our wounds. We hope they remove their bones so that one day, it will be an Eid and we can visit their graves," she added.
The United Nations and many Western countries have officially recognized the atrocities committed against the Yazidis as genocide.
There are 250 identified mass graves across Iraq, many dating back decades. More than 220 of them have been opened, Iraq’s state-affiliated Martyrs Foundation said in September.
“Our team has started opening graves and will continue for 15 days,” said Ahmed Qusayi, head of the Iraqi government’s mass grave exhumation team. The effort covers multiple sites in Shingal and the surrounding districts.
“Today, we started opening graves in Jazeera compound [Siba Sheikh Dari], within the borders of Baaj district. The work will continue for 15 days, and all graves in the compound of Jazeera will be exhumed. After that, we will visit some other mass grave sites registered by [the Iraqi] Office of Martyrs Foundation,” Qusayi added.
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