The 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. The Yazidis were forced to flee to displacement camps across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
As a part of the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) “The Return” program in cooperation with Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC), a total of 87 Yazidi families in Duhok’s Sharia camp voluntarily returned to Shingal on Tuesday.
“Through this program, we are providing these families with an opportunity to visit their original places of residence,” Srwa Rasul, head of the JCC told Rudaw, adding that the center and KRG’s interior ministry will provide the people with financial and logistic aid until they settle back home.
Political disputes over the city between the federal government and the KRG have disrupted the reconstruction of the city. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report last week slammed Iraqi authorities for failing to adequately compensate thousands of Yazidi families who borne the brunt of ISIS’ atrocities.
“To be honest, we don’t have much hope, because when they [the families] go back [to Shingal], they are often re-displaced, due to the unfavorable conditions in Shingal,” said Rasul adding that 97 families had initially signed up to return but had eventually backed down in recent days.
Rasul decried the fact that very few people have matriculated to return home, saying that only 198 families have returned to the Shingal over the past two years of the program while nearly 300,000 people originally from the Yazidi heartland remain displaced across the Kurdistan Region.
According to IOM, around 80 percent of Shingal’s public infrastructure and 70 percent of civilian homes were destroyed during the years of the ISIS war from 2014 to 2017. Fundamental services such as electricity and water are not consistently available, and numerous health and education facilities are yet to be reconstructed after being destroyed during the war.
“I have one request from the Iraqi government,” one of the returnees told Rudaw “reconstruct our place. Compensate the poor people who lived nine years in tents.”
There is a myriad of armed forces in Shingal with various allegiances, including the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga, pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), and groups affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They gained footholds in Shingal after ousting ISIS.
The Iraqi government and KRG signed an agreement in 2020 to restore security in Shingal. Under the agreement, Iraq committed 28 billion IQD ($18 million) to the reconstruction fund of Shingal. The agreement is yet to be implemented.
Both the Iraqi government and KRG on multiple occasions have called for the expulsion of all the armed forces in Shingal. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Leader Masoud Barzani labelled the expulsion of the armed groups a “first step” towards healing the wounds of Shingal.
Under the Erbil-Baghdad agreement, security for the troubled region will be Baghdad's responsibility. The federal government will have to establish a new armed force recruited from the local population and expel fighters from the PKK and their affiliated groups.
