GARMIYAN, Kurdistan Region— At least 430,000 Kurdish Yezidis have been driven out of their homes since August 2014 by the Islamic State, a new report by the Kurdistan Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Victims has found.
More than half of the displaced Yezidis have taken shelter in refugee camps in Kurdish areas, the report said.
ISIS militants attacked the predominantly Yezidi town of Shingal on August 1, 2014, triggering a grim humanitarian crisis as thousands of locals fled to the safety of the nearby Mount Shingal where they were trapped for weeks.
“At least 75 percent of the refugees from Shingal fled to the mountain when the militants attacked the city,” Muhammad Haji Salih, Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Victims, told a gathering in Garmiyan on Thursday at the opening of a conference on genocide.
Salih said the remains of 400 Yezidi men were found in a mass grave in Kojo village where they had been executed.
The report also confirmed that 1,800 Yezidis had been killed and more than 5,000 women and children had been abducted by the militants. It said that more than 600 children and elderly people died in the mountains while fleeing the ISIS.
Salih also said that 14 Yezidi Shrines, some dating back thousands of years, had completely been demolished by the militants.
