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| Iraq |
| More than 1,100 Yezidis remain missing 4 years on: KRG |
| 2018-08-04 |
| [Rudaw] ERBIL, Kurdistan Region ‐ On the eve of the Yezidi genocide, their representative in the KRG’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments disclosed that 1,102 Yezidis remain missing. Khairi Bozani told Rudaw that the Yezidi population is 550,000 in Iraq and Kurdistan Region, while another 100,000 have fled the country since Shingal fell to ISIS on August 3, 2014. Considered non-believers or devil worshipers by ISIS, thousands of Yezidi men and women were massacred or sold into slavery ‐ sexual and otherwise. Bozani added that 1,193 people were massacred only in the first day of the attack, leaving 2,745 children without parents. Following the events, the KRG opened an office for kidnapped Yezidis. Out of 6,417 kidnapped people, the office has been able to rescue 1,315. On Friday againt the Yezidis will hold a ceremony on Mount Shingal and other events are planned in Duhok where hundreds of thousands remain displaced. Rebuilding the Shingal homeland remains a struggle. It is a disputed or Kurdistani area, claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil. Infrastructure remains destroyed more than a year after its liberation from the Lion of Islams. Psychosocial services are also a major concern for the survivors. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |