ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Germany’s foreign ministry on Saturday called on the Iraqi government to accelerate reconstruction of the Yazidi heartland Shingal, which was devastated in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) a decade ago. Thousands of Yazidis remain displaced, unable to return to their homes.
“Regarding the reconstruction of damaged areas, progress is not at the level of expectations of many victims' families. Many displaced people still cannot return to their original places. It is an important task for the Iraqi government to work on reconstructing the original areas of the Yazidi community and continuously develop reconstruction measures,” the ministry’s press office told Rudaw in response to an email.
“Germany participates annually with various projects there and particularly supports Yazidis as the biggest victims of ISIS. Most of these measures are in Shingal,” it added.
The Yazidis are an ethnoreligious group in northern Iraq that were subjected to heinous atrocities, including forced marriages, sexual violence, and massacres when ISIS captured the Shingal area in 2014, bringing destruction to many villages and towns and committing genocide.
Yazidis were forced to flee to camps, mainly in the Kurdistan Region. Political disputes between Baghdad and Erbil, as well as the presence of armed groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), have disrupted reconstruction of towns and villages in the Shingal area.
International actors, such as the United Nations and the United States, have repeatedly called on Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to implement a 2020 agreement between Erbil and Baghdad to normalize the situation in the district.
Most of the 125,000 internally displaced Iraqis who have yet to return to their homes are from Shingal, the spokesperson for Baghdad’s ministry for migration and displaced told Rudaw last week.
The German foreign ministry also acknowledged the Iraqi government’s “important measures to improve the situation of Yazidis,” mentioning the Yazidi Survivors Law that was passed in 2021 and provides compensation for ISIS victims, and another law passed the following year allowing Yazidis to register houses and land in their names.
Kahi Mahmoud contributed to this article.