ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Women affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) are digging tunnels in a camp in northeast Syria (Rojava) to hide children who have reached puberty and sexually abuse them in an effort to maintain the group’s radical ideology, a Kurdish official told Rudaw English. An international aid organisation described the act as “the biggest child abuse.”
Dr. Lilla Schumicky-Logan, deputy executive director of the Geneva-based Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), told Rudaw’s Namo Abdulla earlier this week that she visited al-Hol camp, which houses thousands of families who have alleged ties with ISIS, last month. She described the situation in the notorious camp as “extremely dire” and revealed that young boys are “misused” by women to get them pregnant “to continue with the line of the caliphate.”
Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees all internally displaced persons and refugee camps in Rojava, has confirmed the sexual abuses to Rudaw English.
“Yes, what she [Schumicky-Logan] said is true… This is especially the case in the section of the camp which houses foreigners [non-Syrians and non-Iraqis]. When children, mostly those aged 15-16, reach puberty age, they [ISIS families] hide them and then marry them off to more than a woman. They want to expand their generation,” he said.
“These women dig tunnels in the camp to hide them. This is done with ISIS approval rather than being an independent act,” he added.
Al-Hol camp in Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of its 26,338 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the territorial defeat of the jihadists in 2019. People from around the world who traveled to join ISIS are also held at the camp.
The sexual abuses against children are not common in the sections housing Iraqis and Syrians—who make up the majority of the camp population—as some of the women from both countries live with their husbands.
Many of the husbands of foreign women held at al-Hol were ISIS fighters or held senior positions within the group. This, according to the Kurdish official, could explain the families’ insistence on increasing the ISIS-linked generation.
The violations are being committed despite a rule banning presence of children who have reached puberty age in the camp.
“As per our rules and those of the organizations and the [anti-ISIS] global coalition, those children aged between 12 and 13 should be separated [from their families],” Ahmed said, adding that these adolescents are kept in three specialized centers outside the camp, supervised by Rojava authorities and aid organizations.
He explained that another reason behind separating adolescent children from their families is the possibility of radicalizing them in the camp.
ISIS-affiliated women “train their children in the camp on weapons, war, killing, and beheading,” Ahmed stated. “They are even trained on how to burn tents of humanitarian organizations and attack their employees. The children are also trained on how to attack security forces.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) often carries out raids in al-Hol camp targeting suspected ISIS cells, with the latest one being conducted early September.
“The campaign seeks to dismantle terrorist networks, safeguard aid organizations and their staff, and prevent the exploitation of children under the so-called ‘Cubs of the Caliphate,’” the US-backed force said in a statement at the time.
Cubs of the Caliphate is the term ISIS used for the boys they trained as child soldiers.
The statement added that ISIS was attempting to indoctrinate teens and children with their extremist ideas and “enforcing radical practices within the camp, and inciting minors to adopt violence and target humanitarian organizations.”
The Rojava official who supervises the camps revealed that among 15 people arrested in the operation were four children aged between 14 to 16 “who were accused of burning tents and attacking security forces.”
A high-level international conference on the future of al-Hol camp was held in New York last week. The event was organized by Iraq on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
UN Acting Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, Alexandre Zouev, warned at the conference that “women and girls [held in the camp] have experienced or are at risk of sexual violence,” adding that children lack access to formal education.
“With Daesh attacks and assorted humanitarian actors limiting services, the camps threaten to turn into incubators of terrorist radicalization and future recruitment,” he said.
Al-Hol camp is operated in coordination with the American forces in Rojava. Rudaw English has contacted the US Department of State regarding the alleged child abuse in the camp, but has not yet received a response.