Targeted in ISIS genocide, Iraq launches executive phase of Kojo village project

Shafaq News/ On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani launched the executive phase of the Kojo residential village project in Sinjar District, northern Iraq.

In August 2023, al-Sudani directed the start of the reconstruction of the Yazidi village.

ISIS, in August 2014, launched a campaign against the Yazidi minority following its capture of several Iraqi cities, which involved ethnic cleansing, mass executions, forced conversions, widespread sexual violence, and the killing of thousands of Yazidis. The group enslaved over 6,500 women and children, displacing over 350,000 people to camps, according to UN data.

In 2019, the Kurdistan Regional Parliament voted to recognize the atrocities against the Yazidis as genocide and designated August 3rd as a day of remembrance for the tragic events.

Kojo village, located in Sinjar District south of the Sinjar Mountains in Nineveh governorate, is one of the disputed areas inhabited by Yazidis. It gained international attention in 2014 due to the Yazidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS.