Ethnic cleansing
Along with Christians and other non-Sunni Muslims, Yezidis are little tolerated by the hardline Sunni Muslims from Islamic State. According to several reports, in the beginning of August, more than 1,000 Yezidis were killed when Islamic State conquered the area of Northern Iraq where Yezidis have lived for centuries.
A total of around 500,000 of the Yezidis survived and managed to escape, and now all of them live as displaced in the neighboring state of Kurdistan, with the largest group in the province of Dohuk where Mission East has worked for months with the distribution of aid to the displaced. The sufferings the Yezidis have gone through are beyond comprehension. And now – months after their escape – by far most of them still live under completely unacceptable conditions, most of them in unfinished concrete buildings or in thin summer tents. And most of these displaced still have not received any help to enable them to survive the cold of winter.
The temperatures are now around zero degrees Celsius, and there is an urgent need to get blankets and winter clothing to the many displaced that are freezing. Mission East is fighting a battle against time to be able to assist as many displaced as possible as quickly as possible.
Kim Hartzner, MD, Managing Director
Three families of displaced Yezidis live together in one of several interim ’rooms’ in an unfinished concrete building in the town of Batufa in northern Kurdistan. For months, a total of 6 adults and 8 children in this 'room of the building' have had to endure the sufferings of living under such insecure conditions, without any immediate outlook for improvement, and with the winter standing just outside the door. The overwhelming worry of the displaced is now to make sure they can keep warm during the coming months.
About the situation of the displaced Kheder (in the middle of the picture, in khaki dress), father of eight children, says: ”We are happier in the unfinished building than in the camps, because things are even worse in the camps. Conditions there are not suitable for human life.”
I told Kheder that on the following day the family would receive warm blankets and winter clothing from Mission East and asked them about their other needs. To this Kheder answered: ”We need heaters and shelter, something we can construct ourselves. We cannot live in the tents, because it is too cold to live in the tents.”
During the coming months Mission East will also help thousands of displaced with heaters and materials for shelter.
