Hope for the displaced on Sinjar Mountain
For centuries, the district of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq has been home to the world’s largest Yazidi community. Yazidis are adherents of an ancient religion and have therefore historically been suppressed by the Muslim majority in the Middle East.
On August 3rd last year, when the Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State withdrew from the district of Sinjar, a great number of Yazidis decided to escape the atrocities of Islamic State. The Yazidis who did not manage to escape have suffered a terrible fate. According to concurring reports from Yazidis that have been able to flee the terror regime of the Islamists, people from Islamic State have executed Yazidi men and their boys, raped their women and turned their girls into sex slaves. Last year, most of the displaced Yazidis fled north to Sinjar Mountain where tens of thousands of people were stuck for days without food, water and shelter.
During their escape many of the Yazidis were captured by Islamic State forces or died from lack of water in the baking heat. Hundreds died, including scores of children, as a direct result of violence, displacement and dehydration.
A large part of the several hundred thousand displaced Yazidis, who eventually made it to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq (Kurdistan) now live in makeshift tents. However, 25,000 Yazidis still live up on Sinjar Mountain where they escaped on August 3rd last year. Most of them have been there since then - a smaller share however have returned to the mountain as they could not pay the rent they were forced to pay for living in the open unfinished concrete buildings in Kurdistan that had provided temporary shelter for them.
These 25,000 people now face the second winter outside of their own homes, forced to spend the cold nights in thin summer tents on the barren land of a cold mountainous region.
These are some of the people helped by Mission East. So far we have provided a third of them with equipment for shelter (tarpaulins, timber and toolboxes) as well as necessary hygiene equipment (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, nail clippers, dish soap, towels, sanitary napkins, detergent, water containers) as well as sun-cell screens, providing some electricity for the pitch-dark nights.
On November 2nd I visited the displaced Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain and heard their stories about how they survive with assistance from Mission East, but also about their hopes for a future if, as they hope, they will soon be able to return to their homes.
Kim Hartzner, MD, Managing Director
Read MoreOn August 3rd last year, when the Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State withdrew from the district of Sinjar, a great number of Yazidis decided to escape the atrocities of Islamic State. The Yazidis who did not manage to escape have suffered a terrible fate. According to concurring reports from Yazidis that have been able to flee the terror regime of the Islamists, people from Islamic State have executed Yazidi men and their boys, raped their women and turned their girls into sex slaves. Last year, most of the displaced Yazidis fled north to Sinjar Mountain where tens of thousands of people were stuck for days without food, water and shelter.
During their escape many of the Yazidis were captured by Islamic State forces or died from lack of water in the baking heat. Hundreds died, including scores of children, as a direct result of violence, displacement and dehydration.
A large part of the several hundred thousand displaced Yazidis, who eventually made it to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq (Kurdistan) now live in makeshift tents. However, 25,000 Yazidis still live up on Sinjar Mountain where they escaped on August 3rd last year. Most of them have been there since then - a smaller share however have returned to the mountain as they could not pay the rent they were forced to pay for living in the open unfinished concrete buildings in Kurdistan that had provided temporary shelter for them.
These 25,000 people now face the second winter outside of their own homes, forced to spend the cold nights in thin summer tents on the barren land of a cold mountainous region.
These are some of the people helped by Mission East. So far we have provided a third of them with equipment for shelter (tarpaulins, timber and toolboxes) as well as necessary hygiene equipment (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, nail clippers, dish soap, towels, sanitary napkins, detergent, water containers) as well as sun-cell screens, providing some electricity for the pitch-dark nights.
On November 2nd I visited the displaced Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain and heard their stories about how they survive with assistance from Mission East, but also about their hopes for a future if, as they hope, they will soon be able to return to their homes.
Kim Hartzner, MD, Managing Director
The war has left unmistakable marks on great parts of Iraq. Here a bombed out town in northern Iraq close to the Syrian border, on the way to Sinjar Mountain.
