Amnesty: Iraqis desperate for aid following ISIS attacks

Tens of thousands of civilians were forced to flee the town of Sinjar and its surrounded areas after a brutal attack by Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

Hundreds more civilians are missing, feared dead or abducted, while tens of thousands are trapped without basic necessities or vital supplies in the Sinjar Mountain area south of the city, Amnesty reported. Most of those affected are members of the Yazidi minority. ISIS fighters abducted or killed more than 30 members of two families from the village of Khana Sor, north-west of Sinjar close to the Syrian border, one of their relatives told Amnesty International.

Since the start of this month, entire populations of the areas attacked by ISIS have fled to the mountain area; a place equally surrounded by the armed group. The civilians trapped in the area are not only at risk of being killed or abducted by ISIS; they are also suffering from a lack of water, food and medical supplies. “They are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser, who is currently in northern Iraq.

Access is currently impossible to the areas under ISIS control and to surrounding areas where armed confrontations are ongoing between ISIS militants and Kurdish Peshmerga forces. It is therefore difficult to obtain and verify information about the exact circumstances in which individuals and families have gone missing.

The fact that many are trapped in areas without electricity means communication with any relatives and with the outside world has totally ceased and reports rely on Amnesty’s interviews with the former besieged.

The organisation calls on the international community to provide humanitarian assistance, and urged the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to spare no effort to ensure that much-needed aid is delivered to the displaced people as well as ensuring their safety from further ISIS attacks.