ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Over a decade after the Islamic State (ISIS) launched its brutal attack on the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in northern Iraq, the fate of approximately 2,500 Yazidis remains unknown, a Kurdish official told Rudaw on Sunday, adding that most of the missing are believed to be in Syria.
Hussein Qaidi, head of the Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis – affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency – stated that “around 2,500 Yazidis remain missing to this day, the majority of whom are believed to be in Syria, particularly in the northeast [Rojava].”
On Friday, families of the missing staged a rally in Shingal, urging the Iraqi government to press on the new authorities in Syria to help find their loved ones.
Qaidi noted that some of the missing Yazidis are believed to be held in the infamous al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, while others may have been transferred abroad.
The al-Hol Camp located in Syria’s Hasakah province, currently holds over 40,000 people - mainly women and children with alleged or confirmed ties to ISIS. The majority of the camp’s residents are Iraqis and Syrians, and security is maintained by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Since ISIS's territorial defeat in Iraq (2017) and Syria (2019), al-Hol has drawn international concern as a potential breeding ground for extremism.
Qaidi on Sunday added that his office, which functions directly under the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, has successfully rescued 3,587 Yazidis so far. These include women, men, and children who were abducted during ISIS’s 2014 assault on Shingal and surrounding areas.
In June 2014, ISIS seized large parts of northern and western Iraq. Two months later, in August, the group launched a devastating campaign against the Yazidi community in Shingal, abducting 6,417 Yazidi women and children. Many were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labor.
Approximately 200,000 Yazidis were displaced from Shingal during the onslaught, and many remain in displacement camps across the Kurdistan Region, especially in Duhok province.
The United Nations has officially recognized ISIS’s crimes against the Yazidis as genocide.
Qaidi confirmed that the rescued Yazidis, though now free, are in dire need of psychological support. He highlighted a 2015 agreement between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the German government, under which around 1,090 survivors were sent to Germany for treatment.
Since then, additional survivors have been sent to Australia, Canada, and the United States for similar assistance. “Those who go abroad for psychological treatment are free to return or stay in those countries, based on their own choice,” Qaidi said.
