By Yousef Ahmed DOHUK, Kurdistan Region - At least 4,500 Yezidis are still in ISIS captivity despite the rescue of thousands of others, according to the Office of Yezidi Affairs in Dohuk. The office, which releases daily figures and data about Yezidi captives and was founded by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), also fears that about a dozen more mass graves are yet to be found in Yezidi areas attacked by ISIS since last summer. “We know that at least 1,758 Yezidi people have been rescued and 10 such mass graves have been found since last summer when the attacks began,” said Hussein Koro, head of the office, adding that most of the captives are women and children. Koro said his office can verify the deaths of 1,280 Yezidis while in ISIS confinement. Seven-year-old Alan and his mother are the latest to be rescued from ISIS captivity in the Shingal area. The mother, who wished to remain unidentified, said most of her family members were still in ISIS hands. “We have been in their hands for 10 months,” she said. “My son and I are here, but our other children, our girls and our old people are still there,” she told Rudaw. The rescue effort of many of the Yezidis has been a direct outcome of paid ransoms to ISIS militants or intercession by Sunni tribal leaders in the area who appear to have influence among the ISIS ranks. The KRG has announced that it paid many of the ransoms for the return of the captive Yezidis. Alan and his mother did not wish to discuss the details surrounding their escape from captivity. Koro says that, despite financial aid from the KRG to help the Yezidis after their return from confinement, most Yezidi families are in desperate need of economic aid, as they are unable to return to their areas and have lost virtually all possessions. “We do everything to first get them out of there, but so much more is needed to be done afterwards, which we at the moment don’t have the means to do,” Koro said. A 2015 UN report estimates that nearly 1.5 million refugees or displaced people have taken shelter in the Kurdistan Region since mid-2011 when the bloody Syrian uprising started. The KRG, already heavily affected by budget cuts in Iraq, has been under mounting pressure to accommodate the refugees.
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