Yazidi children still missing 10 years after genocide, says Save the Children

The fate of about 1,300 of Iraq’s missing Yazidi children remains unknown 10 years on from the Islamic State genocide, Save the Children has revealed. Thousands of others are still homeless, living in tents or amid rubble in Sinjar, added the NGO.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or Daesh) killed, captured and displaced all 400,000 Yazidi people living in Sinjar on 3 August 2014, in a genocide that affected children disproportionately. About 10,000 Yazidis were killed or abducted, and half of all those executed were children, according to a report by multi-national researchers in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Nearly all — 93 per cent — of those who eventually died on Mount Sinjar from injuries or lack of food and water were also children. Of the around 6,400 abducted Yazidis, it is estimated about half were children, according to the Yazidi-led NGO Nadia’s Initiative. Boys as young as seven were sent to ISIS training camps and girls as young as nine were subjected to rape and sexual enslavement, says a Save the Children report.

Today, about 2,700 Yazidis remain missing, including around 1,300 who were children at the time of their abduction, according to estimates from Yazda, a Yazidi advocacy group in Iraq. About 300 to 400 of those still missing are likely still under 18. So far, over 3,500 Yazidis have been rescued, including 2,000 children, according to Nadia’s Initiative.

“Ten years later and over 1,000 children are still missing and families are still broken,” explained Sarra Ghazi, Save the Children’s Country Director for Iraq. “Children have been living in tents for over a decade, with insufficient access to basic services and no means to return in a voluntary and dignified manner. Yazidi children, like all children, deserve the right to safety, security and access to education.”

About 200,000 Yazidis remain displaced from their communities in Iraq, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Many are still homeless, living in tents in displacement camps with little access to adequate education or healthcare.

In Sinjar, homes and buildings remain destroyed, and streets are littered with rubble and explosive remnants of war, making it one of the most contaminated regions in Iraq, with unexploded ordnance, according to aid organisation Humanity & Inclusion. The conflict-damaged infrastructure severely limits access to water and electricity, and there is a shortage of schools and hospitals for returning residents.

As a result, many Yazidis suffer from mental health problems, with children reporting loneliness and suicidal thoughts, according to Save the Children.

The NGO is calling on international and local authorities to prioritise the provision of comprehensive support for Yazidi children’s mental health and reintegration into society. It advocates for increased investment in education, healthcare and safe living conditions for displaced and returned Yazidi families. The goal is to ensure that Yazidi children, like all children, have the right to safety, security, stability and a hopeful future.

READ: UK acknowledges genocide was committed against Yazidis by Daesh