The Silent Genocide Of Yazidis

On August 3, 2014, the silent genocide of Yazidis by the IS began. Even after their territories were recaptured and IS was defeated, thousands of Yazidis remain missing. Activists from the religious community have been raising their voices. But with reluctant support from international organizations, they are left on their own.

Ali Hussein al-Khansouri, Yazidi activists told VOA, “many of the missing Yazidis have to be ‘bought’ from their kidnappers at a hefty price.”

He said that locating the missing Yazidis is becoming increasingly difficult. Especially as they seem to be scattered across conflict areas of Syria and as far as Turkey.

Al-Khansouri has rescued 43 kidnapped Yazidis across Iraq and Syria. He had been an IS captive himself, and in 2017, he started his first mission of freeing an 8-year-old Yazidi girl from northwestern Syria. The young girl was under the al-Qaida offshoot, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group.

The 34-year-old said, “I never imagined that I would be engaged in finding the missing Yazidis.”

He is on a mission to track down 46 people from his extended family and relatives. ⠀

“As time passed by and thousands of Yazidis remained missing, and because of the network of people I know, I was compelled to take action,” he said.

According to the Kidnapped Yazidis Rescue Office in Duhok, Kurdistan Region, 3,543 kidnapped Yazidis have been rescued, with 2,800 still missing.

This piece is an attempt to bring the unheard voices of Yazidis to the world.

Speak out for #Yazidis

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