Families have waited five years for news of their missing relatives, abducted by jihadist militants from their homeland of Shingal, northern Iraq in the summer of 2014.
Thousands of Yezidi men and elderly people were executed and buried in mass graves, while around 6,400 women and children were kidnapped to be sold into slavery.
“We had hoped they return; we were waiting. But they never returned,” Wadiha Ibrahim, 67, tells Rudaw. “We hoped they might be in Syria or in Baghouz. We’re still waiting on God to see them again. They didn’t return. We depend on God.”
Wadiha’s husband, three of her sons and one daughter have been missing for five years.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Special Office for Yezidi Abductee Affairs says it has liberated 25 people since the Baghouz operation began. Many more missing Yezidis are thought to be held in other cities throughout Iraq and Syria.
Some 3,046 people are still missing.
Reporting by Mehdi Faraj
