Thousands still missing in Iraq, Kurdistan tells UN
Shafaq News- Geneva
A senior representative of the Kurdistan Region told the United Nations on Wednesday that thousands of people remain missing after years of conflict in Iraq, including dozens of officers from the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Coordinator for International Advocacy, submitted a list of enforced disappearance cases during a session of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances in Geneva.
Addressing the committee, Zebari said authorities have documented 6,417 abduction cases, most linked to the conflict with ISIS, particularly in the Nineveh Plains and other disputed territories. Of those cases, 3,593 people have been freed, while 2,824 remain missing, he said, including 63 officers from the Peshmerga Forces whose fate remains unknown.
The abductions largely targeted members of minority communities, especially Yazidis, along with other religious and ethnic groups during the Islamic State’s campaign across northern Iraq.
Zebari said Kurdish authorities have also registered 2,872 legal cases and 3,171 complaints related to 3,090 missing victims, including 1,222 women and 1,868 men. Nearly 2,848 victims or relatives have received psychological and social support, while 2,076 women were subjected to serious violations during the conflict.
The Regional Government has compiled 24,965 case files, containing more than 408,000 pages of investigation records related to captured ISIS members, he said, part of an effort to build a digital archive documenting the crimes.
Humanitarian programs have focused on survivors of the militant group’s violence, particularly Yazidi women abducted during the 2014 assault on Sinjar. Zebari said more than 1,080 rescued women were transferred to Germany for rehabilitation and psychosocial support. A financial support program launched by the Kurdistan Regional Government in July 2024 has assisted over 3,500 survivors, he added.
Authorities have also intensified efforts to locate and identify victims buried in mass graves left by the ISIS. According to Zebari, investigators have opened 62 mass graves in Sinjar as of May 2025, recovering the remains of 360 victims from 21 sites. The remains of 186 Yazidi victims have been returned to families in the villages of Kocho and Hardan.
Forensic teams have collected bone samples from 2,915 bodies for DNA testing in an effort to identify victims, including missing children.
Zebari also said Regional authorities have handled 1,246 terrorism cases, including 1,225 involving men and 21 involving women. Between early 2024 and mid-2025, security forces arrested 290 suspects on terrorism charges. Of those, 124 were released for lack of evidence, 133 are on trial, and 33 remain under investigation.
