Nine years on, Yazidis grieve ISIS massacre in Kocho
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nine years ago, Kache Amo along with 11 others miraculously survived the genocide campaign that the Islamic State (ISIS) committed in their village of Kocho in Shingal, which eventually became the symbol of the group's barbaric atrocities against Yazidis.
Amo had been rounded up for death together with hundreds of other men in Kocho. He still has trouble comprehending how he managed to dodge the bullets by hiding among the corpses of his neighbors, friends, and relatives.
Ever since he witnessed the tragedy unfold with his eyes, the Yazidi man has been traumatized and haunted by grief.
"Indeed, up until today, until this very last moment, I grieve, and my grief has been reflected in the memoir that I am currently writing. It was a very tough moment. What is really difficult is not that you get killed, but that your children and women get kidnapped," Amo said.
ISIS militants swept across Iraq in August 2014, committing genocide against the Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority who primarily lived in the Shingal district. In the first days of the ISIS attack, militants killed 1,293 people, according to figures from the Kurdistan Region’s office for rescuing kidnapped Yazidis.
Located 18 kilometers southwest of Shingal, the village was encircled for nearly two weeks after ISIS militants captured the rest of the district on 3 August 2014.
On August 15, the villagers were gathered at a local school before being separated, with almost all of Kocho’s men shot, boys forced to become child soldiers, and women and girls sold into sexual slavery. Among them was Nadia Murad, now a Nobel Peace Laureate and prominent advocate for the Yazidi community.
Yazidis mark two tragedies; the Kocho massacre on August 15, 2014, and twin deadly blasts in the villages of Siba Sheikh Khidir and Gir Uzer on August 14, 2007, which killed 314 people and wounded more than a thousand others.
A ceremony was held in the Rawanga refugee camp in Duhok on Sunday to mark these.
"I come from the Siba Sheikh Khidir village. I was in Siba when four vehicles came in the area [on August 14, 2007] martyring and wounding many people," Shamo Sarhan, an eyewitness of the car bombs in Siba Sheikh Khidir village, told Rudaw. "We managed to reach out to some of the people, taking the wounded to Shingal hospital and some others to Duhok city."
"Believe me, people suffered a lot. It was another genocide against us," he continued.
Amo had been rounded up for death together with hundreds of other men in Kocho. He still has trouble comprehending how he managed to dodge the bullets by hiding among the corpses of his neighbors, friends, and relatives.
Ever since he witnessed the tragedy unfold with his eyes, the Yazidi man has been traumatized and haunted by grief.
"Indeed, up until today, until this very last moment, I grieve, and my grief has been reflected in the memoir that I am currently writing. It was a very tough moment. What is really difficult is not that you get killed, but that your children and women get kidnapped," Amo said.
ISIS militants swept across Iraq in August 2014, committing genocide against the Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority who primarily lived in the Shingal district. In the first days of the ISIS attack, militants killed 1,293 people, according to figures from the Kurdistan Region’s office for rescuing kidnapped Yazidis.
Located 18 kilometers southwest of Shingal, the village was encircled for nearly two weeks after ISIS militants captured the rest of the district on 3 August 2014.
On August 15, the villagers were gathered at a local school before being separated, with almost all of Kocho’s men shot, boys forced to become child soldiers, and women and girls sold into sexual slavery. Among them was Nadia Murad, now a Nobel Peace Laureate and prominent advocate for the Yazidi community.
Yazidis mark two tragedies; the Kocho massacre on August 15, 2014, and twin deadly blasts in the villages of Siba Sheikh Khidir and Gir Uzer on August 14, 2007, which killed 314 people and wounded more than a thousand others.
A ceremony was held in the Rawanga refugee camp in Duhok on Sunday to mark these.
"I come from the Siba Sheikh Khidir village. I was in Siba when four vehicles came in the area [on August 14, 2007] martyring and wounding many people," Shamo Sarhan, an eyewitness of the car bombs in Siba Sheikh Khidir village, told Rudaw. "We managed to reach out to some of the people, taking the wounded to Shingal hospital and some others to Duhok city."
"Believe me, people suffered a lot. It was another genocide against us," he continued.