Return to Sinjar: Hundreds of Yazidi families start journey home

Shafaq News/ More than 400 displaced Yazidi families have begun returning from camps in Duhok province to their hometowns in Sinjar over four days, the local Migration and Crisis Response Directorate announced on Monday.

Director Dayan Jaafar told Shafaq News that the repatriation process began on Sunday, when 92 families departed Jamshko Camp in Zakho. Over 100 additional families were expected to follow on Monday, with the remaining families scheduled to return within the next two days.

The returnees—whose names were registered before the suspension of the return program in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Interior Ministry and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)—are now being resettled across several communities in Sinjar district, including Siba, Tel Azir, Grzark, Dogre, and Skeni.

“The program is expected to resume in early May, pending a decision by US President Donald Trump regarding the continuation of IOM operations,” Jaafar said.

Jam Mashko Camp is an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Zakho, Duhok province, established in 2014 to shelter Yazidi families fleeing ISIS attacks in Sinjar. Despite Sinjar's liberation in 2015, many Yazidis remain in the camp due to security concerns and poor living conditions in their hometowns.