Press.Voanews.
Thousands of displaced Yazidis in the Sinjar mountains in Northern Iraq
are still suffering and afraid, almost four years after Islamic State attacked
Yazidi villages. "The situation of the Yazidis in Iraq is of great
concern. It is an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe with still close to 400,000
internally displaced scattered throughout the provinces of northern Iraq,"
Lisa Miara, founder of Springs of Hope Foundation, told VOA.
Miara said three-and-a-half years after the Yazidi genocide, some
villages are still unreachable and no major effort has been made to enable
thousands of Yazidis to restore their lives and businesses. Yazidis, an
ethno-religious minority group of about 550,000 people, mostly reside in
northern Iraq, in an area also populated by Kurds and Arabs.
In August 2014, the Islamic State attacked the Yazidi-populated Sinjar
mountain, killing thousands of men and taking thousands of women and girls as
sex slaves. Yazidis consider the attack one of 74 genocides in their history.
The massacre against Yazidis was one of the reasons the U.S.-led
military operation, under the authority of President Barack Obama, targeted
Islamic State in Iraq in August 2014, the first offensive action by the U.S. in
Iraq since it withdrew ground troops in 2011. "Targeted airstrikes to
protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save
thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and
water and facing almost certain death," Obama said at the time.
Humanitarian aid
Given the large-scale humanitarian demand among displaced Yazidis, a
number of local and global organizations are pleading to remain focused on the
plight of the Yazidis. Saad Babir, communication manager at Yazda Organization,
told VOA that basic needs such as electricity, water and education are lacking.
In addition, more than 70 percent of houses have been destroyed, and many
religious temples targeted by IS are in rubble.
Thousands of Yazidi women kidnapped by IS are still missing. After the
defeat of IS in Iraq and Syria, Yazidis feel they have been marginalized and
efforts to find the girls — missing since 2014 — have receded.
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