Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

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Kurdish President pledges
support and unity in Yazidi holiday message

Shafaq News/ On Thursday, President Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Region extended “heartfelt greetings” to the Yazidi community on the occasion of their holiday

In a message shared on X, President Barzani stated, "I warmly congratulate the Prince, religious leaders, and all our Yazidi brothers and sisters in Kurdistan, Iraq, and around the world. I wish you all a joyous holiday and a peaceful celebration."

President Barzani emphasized, "We assure our Yazidi brothers and sisters that Kurdistan will always remain a land of coexistence for all sects. We remain committed to supporting and protecting their rights and legitimate demands. Furthermore, we will continue to work towards improving their living conditions and rebuilding their areas."

https://shafaq.com/en/Kurdistan/Kurdish ... ay-message

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Yazidi ISIS survivors receive salaries

Over 2,000 Yazidi women who survived the Islamic State (ISIS) genocide a decade ago are receiving salaries from the Iraqi government under the Yazidi Survivors Law, enacted over three years ago, a federal official said on Sunday

“So far, 2,228 Yazidi girls and women receive salaries,” Sarab Ilias, head of the Yazidis affairs office at the Iraqi ministry of labor and social affairs, told Rudaw.

“Now we have only about 30 pending applications from Yazidi women,” he added, noting that each survivor receives a monthly salary of 800,000 Iraqi dinar ($615).

The Yazidi Survivors Law, passed in March 2021, seeks compensation for Yazidi survivors of the ISIS atrocities against them when the group attacked the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in 2014. It abducted thousands of people and almost 3 thousand remain missing.

Though the jihadists no longer control any territory, they continue to pose a security risk by carrying out kidnappings, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings.

Thousands of Yazidis who fled Shingal to the Kurdistan Region have chosen not to return due to security concerns and lack of basic services at home.

Each returning family is given four million Iraqi dinars (about $3,050) along with some basic household items including a fridge, stove, and television.

Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq's migration ministry, said in November that around 10,000 Yazidis had returned to Shingal this year.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/29122024

Their entire lives have been destroyed, $3,050 a fridge, stove, and television is supposed to compensate

The entire world owes the Yazidis a great deal more, especially as everyone sat back and did nothing for more than a week while ISIS was slaughtering Yazidis

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Germany: accused of abusing Yazidi girls

Germany's federal prosecutor on Monday charged an Iraqi couple with enslavement, torture and war crimes, after they allegedly kept two young Yazidi girls as slaves and sexually and physically abused them

The couple, identified as Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. in line with German privacy law, were arrested in the southern state of Bavaria in April.

The two are also suspected to have been members of the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) extremist group in Iraq and Syria between October 2015 and December 2017, the prosecutor said in a statement.

The accusations against the couple?

They allegedly kept a 5-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave starting in late 2015, and a 12-year-old from October 2017.

According to the prosecutor, the couple bought the two children in a bazaar in Iraq.

The man is accused of having raped the girls, while the woman allegedly prepared the room and put makeup on one of the girls.

The couple also exerted "harsh physical violence" on the girls, forcing them to work constantly and subjecting them to beatings, according to prosecutors.

Before they left Syria in November 2017, the suspects allegedly handed the girls over to other ISIS members.

"All of this served the organization's objective to destroy the Yazidi religion," the prosecutor's statement said.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-iraqi-cou ... a-71186224

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Yazidi woman reunites with family

decade after ISIS abduction

Yazidi woman kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 reunited with her family in Shingal’s Kocho village on Sunday after being rescued from Syria’s northwestern Idlib province last month

S.K, the 30-year-old Yazidi woman was rescued from Idlib with the assistance of the Office of Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, an organization affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency, office head Hussein Qaidi told Rudaw.

She was kidnapped along with five of her sisters and nearly 700 other women when ISIS militants overran her village on August 15, 2014. She was moved through several locations before ending up in Idlib.

Initially believing she would be taken to Mount Shingal, she was instead transported to Mosul, ISIS’s former stronghold in Iraq. From there, she was moved to Tal Afar in western Mosul and eventually to Raqqa, the group’s former capital in Syria.

“They took me to Mosul and put me in a hall,” she told Rudaw. “I told them that I am sick, take me back to my parents and find my parents, and they took me to Tal Afar and after three months we tried to escape but they sensed us and brought several buses to take us to Raqqa.”

She is the second Yazidi woman to be rescued from Idlib in under a month, after a 29-year-old was rescued on December 9.

ISIS’s assault on Sinjar in 2014 led to the abduction of 6,417 Yazidi women and children, many of whom were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labor. Although the group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, it continues to pose security risks through sporadic attacks and abductions in the region.

To date, 3,581 Yazidis have been rescued, but 2,590 individuals are still missing, according to statistics provided by Qaidi

Many have been rescued from al-Hol, the notorious camp that houses tens of thousands of ISIS families and supporters. Others have been found in areas of Syria controlled by rebels or Turkish-backed armed groups, and some have been located in third countries.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/05012025

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Yazidi struggle for liberation after genocide

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — The head of the Yazidi Rescue Office has expressed optimism about the possible liberation of other Yazidi survivors in Syria, especially following the Assad regime's fall and consequent political changes in the country

In an interview with Kurdistan24 on Sunday, Hussein Alqaidi, head of KRG Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, specified that the latest developments, including the release of several captives from Syrian detention facilities, have created new opportunities for discovering and rescuing Yazidi captives.

The latest rescue operation resulted in the liberation of Silvana Kheder, a 29-year-old Yazidi woman who endured lengthy captivity under ISIS control.

"I am truly happy at this moment, though this happiness is clouded by the knowledge that my parents and siblings remain missing or in captivity," Silvana revealed to Kurdistan24’s correspondent Maher Shingali.

Her testimony underlines the multifaceted emotional terrain navigated by survivors, balancing personal liberation with continued concern for those still held captive.

"I understand the devastating nature of this captivity, having endured horrific experiences while in their hands. I empathize deeply with the trauma they are enduring, which drives my strong advocacy for their release," she added, stressing the urgent necessity for continuous rescue efforts.

The reunification of Silvana with her sister Moloka epitomizes a rare moment of hope in a decade-long tragedy.

Moloka's determined search for her family members finally yielded results, though their parents and five siblings remain unaccounted for.

"I was always praying for her release. Thank God, she is free now," Moloka stated, her words revealing both relief and continued concern for remaining family members.

According to official records from the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, of the 6,417 Yazidis kidnapped by ISIS, 3,584 individuals have been rescued to date.

These statistics underscore the considerable scope of ongoing rescue operations while underlining the significant number of individuals still missing.

The village of Kocho, where Silvana's family originated, stands as a stark testament to the scale of ISIS brutalities.

The entire world are to blame for the attack on Kocho, the ISIS attack on Sinjar had taken place several days earlier but NOBODY did anything to stop ISIS moving on to attack Kocho

The community experienced and grieved the loss and abduction of more than 1,000 residents, with many still unaccounted for a decade later.

This single village represents the broader pattern of systematic violence that characterized the ISIS campaign against the Yazidi community.

The 2014 ISIS assault on Sinjar (Shingal) marked a critical juncture in modern humanitarian crises, initiating a genocidal campaign that continues to echo through Yazidi communities.

The continuous efforts to find and rescue survivors highlight the complex networks of captivity extending across territorial boundaries, especially within Syria's evolving political landscape.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/81 ... s-genocide

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Nadia Murad to Elon Musk’s remarks

Prominent Yazidi activist Nadia Murad on Wednesday reacted to a recent remark by Elon Musk about the 2014 Yazidi genocide by the Islamic State (ISIS), urging awareness to identify early signs of such catastrophes in the future

“What happened was far more than this. It cannot possibly be explained in a single screenshot,” said Murad in response to a post on X by its owner, Musk.

Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and survivor of the ISIS atrocities, reacted to Musk’s post summarizing the Yazidi genocide.

“The savagery, brutality, and barbarity of what ISIS did to us are beyond words. What happened to the Yazidis should never happen to any other community. We can always detect early signs and take action to prevent genocide and sexual slavery,” she noted

Musk’s post was a reaction to a text generated by Grok, X’s AI chatbot, answering the prompt “What happened to the Yazidi people?”

Musk posted, “Could what happened to the Yazidi people one day happen to Europe?”

When ISIS swept through the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in August 2014, committing genocide, the group killed an estimated 5,000 mainly men and older women and abducted 6,417 women and children who were forced into sexual slavery and labor.

Several Western countries have officially recognized ISIS crimes against Yazidis as genocide.

Musk has recently faced accusations of thrusting himself into European political discourse, using his platform X to critique European politicians while allegedly supporting far-right movements and white supremacist sentiments. These actions have drawn widespread condemnation from European leaders, who accuse Musk of promoting xenophobic and extremist narratives.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/world/08012025

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Reunited After a Decade in Captivity

Ten years after being abducted by Islamic State (ISIS) militants, Yazidi woman Silvana Khider, 27, has reunited with her family in Iraq

Khider’s return marks the end of a decade-long ordeal that began with her abduction as a teenager and took her across war-torn Syria during the rise and fall of ISIS and the Assad regime. “I am very happy, but also very sad. My father and two of my brothers are dead. My mother and another brother are missing. And I have four sisters in Europe,” Khider said, describing her mixed emotions.

In 2014, ISIS launched a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis in Sinjar province, murdering thousands of men and enslaving thousands of women and girls. Khider, then 17, was taken from her village and sold in markets as a forced bride.

She endured years of captivity, being moved from Sinjar to Tal Afar, then to ISIS’s self-declared capital, Raqqa, before ending up in Baghouz, the group’s final stronghold. Khider lost all contact with her family, who assumed she was dead. “They thought I was dead. They even laid a tomb for me,” she said.

Following ISIS’s territorial defeat in 2019, Khider spent more than four years in Syria’s Idlib province, controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Those years were marked by hunger, fear, and airstrikes. She lived alone in a basement and received some assistance from locals, including a mosque sheik.

With the help of the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, Khider began her journey home during the final days of the Assad regime. Her trek took five days, starting in Manbij and passing through Raqqa, Hasake, and Amuda before finally crossing into Iraq.

Her sister, Muluka Khider, also a survivor of ISIS captivity, recalled the moment she learned her sister was alive. “A few days later, I spoke with her by phone. It was a great joy,” Muluka said.

The Yazidi community continues to grapple with the trauma of ISIS’s campaign. Of the 6,416 Yazidis abducted, over 3,500 have been rescued in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, while more than 2,600 remain missing, according to UN data.

For Silvana Khider, the reunion with her family marks a bittersweet closure to years of suffering. However, the fate of her mother and another brother remains unknown. “We don’t know what happened to them. But I don’t think they survived,” Muluka said.

Link to Article and photo:
https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/871888