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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Despite the numerous obstacles, Kheiri Ali has returned to the ruins of his home in Shingal (Sinjar) from an IDP camp, hoping to start over a new life at home, pinning hope on a government decision to build brand new houses for the returnees.
Along with his wife and six children, the family has taken shelter in one room of their house that barely remains intact, blocking the doors and windows with blankets to keep the warmth indoors at the time of the year when temperature degrees drop below zero during the nighttime.
He is happy to have learnt that the Iraqi government has decided to build new houses for those returnees whose homes have been destroyed.
To encourage internally displaced Yazidis to return to their heartland Shingal, the Iraqi government has decided to construct 2,500-4,000 residential units for those who opt to return home and have their houses destroyed due to the 2015 war to retake the region from the Islamic State (ISIS).
"People cannot afford to reconstruct their houses. It is very difficult. For example, we are eight family members living together in one room. In addition to the room, we have set up a tent outside the house. This is how we live," Ali said. "How is it possible to spend eight years in a tent [at the IDP camps] and live in a tent back home once again? It indeed is very difficult."
Using the Shingal and Nineveh Plains Reconstruction Fund as part of an agreement between Iraq's migration ministry and local authorities of the Nineveh province, around 13 hectares of land will be allocated to the construction of the residential units. The units will be given to the returnees free of charge.
Sheikh Nayef is another returnee in Shingal. He hopes the decision to build residential units will materialize shortly.
"Any steps to improve our lives are highly appreciated. But unfortunately, sometimes things that are done for us, are not enough. This newly made decision to allocate 50 dunams of land [13 hectares] and build houses on it in which thousands of people will make use of it, is a very good plan," Nayef said.
No timeframe of when the project will start and end has yet been determined.
The 2023 Iraqi federal budget law established the Shingal and Nineveh Plains Reconstruction Fund which seeks to provide the required budget for the rehabilitation of the war-torn province, with an estimated capital of 50 billion dinars (approximately 3.3 million dollars).
"The government of Nineveh and the minister [of migration] ordered that 50 dunams of land be allocated in Shingal to build residential units. They [the government] will build houses numbering 2,500 to 4,000," Rafaat Simo, assistant to the Nineveh governor said.
The brutal takeover of Shingal by ISIS in August 2014 forced the displacement of more than 350,000 Yazidis to the IDP camps of the Kurdistan Region. Of this number, only 14,000 families have returned to the city, according to data from Shingal's local authorities.
Yazidis in Shingal were subjected to countless heinous atrocities, including forced marriages, sexual violence, and massacres when the Islamic State (ISIS) captured the city in 2014, bringing destruction to many villages and towns populated by the minority group and committing genocide.
Naif Saido, mayor of Shingal, told Rudaw in August that 60 percent of Shingal residents still live in IDP camps and houses in the Kurdistan Region, mainly in Duhok province.
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