Agencies-Gaza post
NGO: ‘Conflict, destruction’ prevent a return to Yazidi in Iraq
Violence and slow reconstruction didn’t allow the return of its mostly Yazidi population to the northwestern Iraqi city of Sinjar after abuses by the militant government, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Wednesday.
Five years after the collapse of the Daesh group, which executed massacres against the Yazidis and used their women as sex slaves, the Yazidi, Muslim Kurdish and Arab citizens of the city are no closer to returning home, especially after a wave of violence earlier this month.
The humanitarian group stated that “nearly two-thirds of Sinjar’s population – over 193,000 Yazidis, Arabs, and Kurds – remain displaced”.
The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking minority who were victimized by Daesh for their non-Muslim faith after the city was arrested in 2014.
“Widespread destruction of civilian homes, new conflicts and social tensions” are preventing repatriation, the NRC said in a statement.
Of the 1,500 people questioned by the aid group to decide how conclusions to return home are made, about 64% “said their homes were badly damaged.”
“A staggering 99% of those who claimed government compensation had not received any funding for the damaged property,” he added.
“Sinjar’s families remain displaced, with thousands of people still living in the camps,” said NRC national director for Iraq, James Munn.
“We need lasting solutions put in place so that Iraqi families can start living their lives again and plan for a safer future.”
The humanitarian group called on the Iraqi government and the authorities of the independent region of Kurdistan to “give priority to the rehabilitation of infrastructure and the restoration of services to allow the security of housing, land, and property, along with public infrastructure”.
About “80% of public infrastructure and 70% of civilian houses in Sinjar were destroyed” during the conflict years ago, the NRC said.
In early May, fighting broke out between Iraqi forces and Yazidi fighters affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, which shot dead at least one Iraqi soldier.
The Iraqi military was trying to enforce an agreement between Baghdad and the Kurdistan region for the withdrawal of the Yazidi soldiers and the PKK from Sinjar.
At least 10,000 people have fled the latest fighting, adding to the displaced population.
Source: here
