US encourages Baghdad, Erbil to implement agreement supporting Yazidis

WASHINGTON, DC - To support the Yazidi community in determining the fate of those who remain missing and help displaced persons return to their homes in Shingal (Sinjar), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Yazidi civil society leaders, as his government is calling on Baghdad and Erbil to implement a deal reached four years ago.

"I think we've made progress, but much work remains to be done, and this recovery continues," he said on Tuesday.

Nearly 10 years ago, the Yazidi community in Iraq faced genocide by the ISIS with approximately 5,000 Yazidis killed and more than 10,800 Yazidi women and girls abducted and trafficked under a conversion campaign - 2,600 of their fates remain unknown. Those who were forced to leave their homes by the extremists and live in camps for internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kurdistan Region.

According to State Department statistics, more than 1 million Iraqis remain displaced inside Iraq, including about 300,000 Yazidis.

The US government is determined "to find them, to learn their fates, and to rescue those who remain alive," Blinken said while speaking to Yazidi civil society leaders at a roundtable in Washington, DC.

"We're here today ahead of the ten-year commemoration of the ISIS [Islamic State] genocide against Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims – genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing against these and other groups. I have very strong memories of that time, having served in government when the attacks took place,” Blinken said. 

During a press briefing on the same day, State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller said that while Washington believes the 2020 Shingal agreement was a good start, it remains important for Erbil and Baghdad to implement the deal.

"We do believe that the Sinjar agreement was an important start for supporting those targets in the 2014 genocide committed by ISIS,” Miller told Rudaw. “But as you note, the agreement has not yet been fully implemented, which must be done in partnership with local communities, including the Yazidis.”

To normalize the situation in Shingal and return the IDPs to their homes, both Erbil and Baghdad reached the so-called Shingal or Sinjar agreement in October 2020, which has not been fully implemented.

"We continue to encourage the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to implement the tenets of the Sinjar agreement, including security, governance, and reconstruction in Sinjar," Miller said. "We continue to advocate for the security of Sinjar to be in the hands of federal police and Iraqi security forces, including the local police force established under the Sinjar agreement.”

The State Department spokesperson also touched on his government’s financial assistance to the religious and ethnic minority communities in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region who faced genocide by ISIS. Since 2018, the US government has "provided over $500 million dollars,” according to Miller.

He emphasized the protection of vulnerable ethnic and religious communities in the region as "always a priority for the State Department."

"We provide a significant amount of US humanitarian assistance on the basis of needs regardless of ethnic or religious affiliation," he added.

Shingal or Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland and located in Nineveh province in northern Iraq, is a disputed area between the Kurdistan Region and federal Iraq. After Sinjar city was liberated from ISIS in November 2015, different militia groups established loose control, followed by infighting, which has prevented its reconstruction and the return of many Yazidis from camps in the Kurdistan Region.