3,000 Yazidis are still missing
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Roughly 3,000 members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority are still missing after being kidnapped by Islamic State fighters seven years ago. While most are presumed to be dead, hundreds are thought to be held captive, either with the families of deceased ISIS fighters or with different extremist groups in Syria or Turkey.
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In some cases, families know where their missing relatives are and have even been in contact with them or their captors. But financial support from governments and private donors has dried up. Although Yazidis are Iraqi citizens, the government in Baghdad has never participated in their rescue.
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Background: In 2014, when the Islamic State established a self-declared caliphate in Iraq and parts of Syria, ISIS fighters embarked on a campaign of genocide against the ancient sect. They killed more than 3,000 Yazidis and captured 6,000, sexually enslaving many women and girls.
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First person: Abbas Hussein’s teenage son has been forced to work in Syria for about a dollar a day after being kidnapped years ago. His captor won’t allow Hussein and his son to communicate unless they pay an exorbitant fee. “Father, if you don’t have money, that’s OK,” the teenager said in a voice message sent last summer to his father. “I will work and save money and give it to him to let me talk to you.”
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| Yazidi children playing at a temple in the village of Khanke in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.Hawre Khalid for The New York Times |
