Nearly 3,600 Yazidi hostages freed from ISIS captivity in ongoing rescue effort

Shafaq News/ The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has successfully liberated approximately 3,600 Yazidi hostages, both men and women, from the clutches of ISIS since the commencement of specialized rescue operations, according to Dindar Zebari, the KRG Coordinator of International Advocacy, on Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference in Erbil marking the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Zebari emphasized the government’s ongoing efforts to rescue the Yazidi victims. “The Kurdistan Regional Government remains committed to saving the Yazidis who were taken captive by ISIS, and we continue to make progress. So far, we have rescued 3,579 Yazidis,” Zebari said.

The KRG has also announced plans to distribute financial aid to over 3,500 Yazidis who have managed to escape ISIS captivity.

The atrocities began in August 2014 when ISIS launched a brutal attack on Sinjar, a predominantly Yazidi region, committing mass atrocities and genocidal crimes. In November 2015, the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, supported by the US-led Global Coalition, expelled ISIS from the region.

By August 2017, the Iraqi government declared the expulsion of ISIS from Nineveh province. Despite these military successes, the situation for the Yazidis remains grim.

The US State Department reported in August that ISIS killed and enslaved thousands of Yazidis, and over 2,600 Yazidi women and girls remain missing. The identification of bodies found in mass graves continues, with more than 200 gravesites suspected of containing Yazidi remains.

The United Nations estimates that ISIS left behind over 200 mass graves across Iraq, potentially containing the remains of approximately 12,000 people.

As of July, Iraqi authorities have identified 93 mass graves believed to hold Yazidi victims' remains, with 32 still unopened in Sinjar and Baaj districts. While remains of fewer than 700 Yazidis have been exhumed, only 243 have been identified and returned to their families.

In addition, despite Iraq's rapid strides toward closing displacement camps and executing ISIS perpetrators, many Yazidis remain hesitant to return to their ancestral homeland due to ongoing security concerns in Sinjar. Thousands still reside in displacement camps across the region.