The US Consulate in Erbil on Sunday congratulated the Kurdistan Region’s Nechirvan Barzani and Yazidi genocide survivor and activist Nadia Murad for their efforts to rescue six Yazidi women and return them to the Region.
The women were rescued and returned to the Kurdistan Region on Saturday, over eight years since they were taken captive by the Islamic State (ISIS).
In her tweet announcing the rescue, Murad said it would not have been possible without the help of President Barzani. "By setting up an office dedicated to rescuing kidnapped Yazidi women and girls, he has helped many of them escape ISIS captivity,” she said.
Speaking to Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahseen on Sunday, Khairy Bouzani, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s kidnapped Yazidis rescue office, said that a total of 3,568 Yazidis had been rescued by the office so far.
He claimed that after the Iraqi army liberated ISIS-controlled areas, it did not thoroughly search for the missing Yazidi women from those areas, adding that the office does not have the authority to conduct rescue missions in federal Iraq.
Around 2,700 of the women and children seized by ISIS are still missing. Many of them were brought by their captives when they went to Syria after ISIS’ defeat in Iraq. Some women have been found in northeast Syria’s al-Hol camp, among the families of ISIS fighters and supporters.
Bouzani called on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are effectively in charge of the camp, to provide assistance with the rescue operations.
During the interview with Rudaw, Bouzani called on the SDF, as well as the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to lend a hand to in the rescue missions, through cooperation with the Iraqi government and the autonomous Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava).
In August 2014, ISIS militants seized the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in northern Iraq and committed genocide against the minority community. More than 400,000 Yazidis fled. The men and older women who were not able to flee were killed.
More than 5,000 were buried in mass graves. An estimated 6,417 women and children were enslaved.