ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji met with Yazidi leader Mir Hazim Tahsin Beg on Wednesday, discussing efforts to facilitate the return of displaced Yazidis to their heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in Nineveh province. Lack of security and basic services has hindered the process. Araji in a post on X underscored the importance of “the return of all displaced persons to their areas and providing all means of decent living for our people who were displaced from their cities.” He added that the two also discussed “the political, security and social situation as well as services in Sinjar. In November, Iraq’s migration and displacement ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas said that nearly 10,000 people have returned to the Yazidi heartland in the first 11 months of the year. “We confirmed that the government issued clear directives in support and fairness to the displaced,” the security advisor noted. The Iraqi government has paid four million Iraqi dinars (about $3,050) along with some basic household items including a fridge, stove, and television to families willing to return to their homes. Despite the financial support, many families are reluctant to leave because of continued violence in their homelands, a lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their houses, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps have been forced to return, unable to piece together the basics. When the Islamic State (ISIS) captured Shingal in 2014, it committed genocide against the Yazidis, massacring men and older women, enslaving women and children, and destroying many villages and towns. Those who escaped the group were forced to flee to camps across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Shingal was liberated from the group in late 2015, but there is now a myriad of armed forces in the town with various allegiances, including the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga, pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), and groups affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They gained footholds in Shingal after ousting ISIS.
