Iraq
A Yazidi man during a funeral for villagers killed by ISIS in Kocho, Iraq on March 6, 2021. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A development project providing housing and support for genocide survivors will be launched in the Yazidi village of Kocho, the site of some of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) worst atrocities, a Yazidi nonprofit announced on Wednesday.
The village, south of Shingal in Nineveh province, is known for being the site of one of the terror group's most cruel and devastating acts. ISIS militants overran the village in August 2014, holding locals under siege for two weeks before killing almost the entirety of Kocho’s men on August 15 of that year, taking women and children into captivity. Many still remain missing.
New housing will be built close to the village’s “old town,” now surrounded by mass graves, said Nadia’s Initiative, headed by Yazidi survivor Nadia Murad. The project, designed to find durable solutions for survivors of the massacre and “families feel safe, heard, and supported,” will be carried out with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
‘New Kocho’ will also create memorial sites to commemorate the dead, and protection measures for the graveyard where victims initially left in mass graves are now being reburied.
“My community of Kocho has experienced some of the worst atrocities known to mankind. Those who survived the genocide have been waiting almost seven years to return home. Thousands of women and children are still missing in captivity. Hundreds of men and women who were killed have yet to be identified. Survivors of sexual violence and single mothers are struggling to find shelter and adequate support,” Murad said in a statement.
“This project is a critical step toward enabling the dignified return of displaced Kocho community members and facilitating the rebuilding of a dignified life.”
Kocho survivors and the wider Yazidi community bade a final farewell last month to 104 Yazidi men identified from mass graves surrounding the village. Several hundred plots remain empty, awaiting remains to be returned from Baghdad.
Much of Shingal district still lies in ruins, with efforts to rebuild hindered by the myriad of armed groups vying for control of the disputed district. Thousands of Yazidis returned to the area last year nevertheless, weary of life in IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region.
Kocho, as Nadia’s Initiative said, remains mostly derelict, with survivors unwilling to return to their home so charged with trauma.
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