ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—An eyewitness told Rudaw that 40 Yezidi children and elderly have died of hunger and thirst on Shingal Mountain on Monday.
“The children and the elderly cannot stand the lack of food and water and the aid doesn’t reach all the families who have taken refugee on the mountain,” the witness told Rudaw by telephone.
Around 50,000 civilian Yezidis, most of them residents of Shingal, have spent three days on a dry mountain in the outskirts of town after fleeing the advance of Islamic militants on Sunday.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has coordinated with international organizations to deliver food and water to the refugees by air, but people on Shingal mountain say that the help doesn’t reach them properly.
Shingal, 211 kilometers west of Erbil, fell to the militants of the Islamic State (IS) on Saturday.
Heavy fighting is raging between Peshmerga forces and the IS group near Shingal.
Yezidi leaders have reported that the Islamic militants have committed a massacre against the local population in the past three days, including capturing 500 Yezidi women as hostages.
Shingal’s closeness to the IS heartland has made it difficult for the Peshmerga forces to reach the refugees.
Meanwhile Kurdish fighters from Rojava known as the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have joined the offensive against the IS and they have retaken several villages near the Rabia border crossing.
On Tuesday Yezidi leaders said that Kurdish military officials have agreed to form two volunteer units for the local population to join the fight and protect their villages.
Yezidi leaders urge world leaders and humanitarian organizations to come to the aid of tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting and at grave risk.
