SHEKHAN, Kurdistan Region - Khayri Khidir has survived two genocides in his lifetime, once during the Baathist regime’s Anfal campaign while the other was the Islamic State’s (ISIS) Yazidi genocide in Shingal. He now resides in one of the Kurdistan Region’s refugee camps in Duhok province with his wife and children, after losing his parents and siblings 34 years ago.
Khidir was only seven-years-old when the Badinan Anfal began in August 1988. His family resided in an area nearby the town of Sharia, which was under the rule of the fallen Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.
The Anfal campaign, named after the eighth surah in the Quran, was the codename for Hussein’s genocide which killed around 182,000 Kurds. The Badinan phase of the campaign, which Khidir survived, began on August 25, 1988 and continued until September 6 of the same year.
“My uncle came to our home and asked my mother if he could take me and my two sisters with him to Shingal. My mother said no, only take Khayri [Khidir], and I went with him,” Khidir told Rudaw’s Ayub Nasri on Sunday.
Khidir lost all six members of his family during the Anfal, yet still holds onto the hope of seeing them again, as the location of their graves remains unknown.
“My parents and my siblings were victims of Anfal 34 years ago. We, as Yazidis, have a tradition to visit our relatives’ graves during religious holidays and ceremonies, but I do not have any graves. God willing, I will not lose hope until our hands meet each other again.”
The Anfal campaign has been recognized by the Iraqi Supreme Court as constituting genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Yet, the campaign is yet to be recognized as genocide by the majority of the international community.
Khidir, now a father of four, had to leave Shingal with the rest of his family due to the threat of ISIS in 2014 and found refuge in Shekhan’s Mam Rashan camp where he resides to this day.
Wednesday marks the eighth anniversary of ISIS’ capture of the Yazidi homeland of Shingal.
ISIS seized control of Shingal on August 3, 2014, killing thousands of the Yazidi minority and leading thousands more to flee their homes to escape the militant group’s systematic killing of men and the enslavement of younger women and children.
Eight years later, thousands of Yazidis remain in camps in the Kurdistan Region, unable to return home due to the lack of reconstruction, services, and security.
