ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi and Kurdish governments will hold a minute of silence on Saturday to mark the tenth anniversary of the Yazidi genocide committed by the Islamic State (ISIS). This commemoration will be an annual event. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani ordered all government offices to “stand for a minute of silence on August 3 every year at 10am and stop the movement of vehicles as a commemoration of the souls of all martyrs of Iraq and victims of genocide on the National Day of the Genocide of the Yazidis and other Iraqi components,” Ali Razuqi, deputy head of Sudani’s office, said on Friday, state media reported. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) welcomed the move, spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani said in a statement on Thursday, adding that “the Kurdistan Region will respect this decision and consider it important and necessary.” 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 labour. At least 3,576 of the abducted Yazidis have been rescued so far, according to Hussein Qaidi, head of the Yazidi rescue office that is affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency. Many of them were found in al-Hol camp that houses tens of thousands of ISIS families and supporters in northeast Syria (Rojava). The latest rescue was announced just this week. A Yazidi woman and a child were found by Kurdish forces in Rojava on Thursday, ending a decade of ISIS captivity.
