Kurdistan Regional Government Kidnapped Yezidi Rescue Office Director Hussein al-Qadi told Kurdistan Chronicle on August 14 that the work to liberate 2,500 Yezidi women and girls will continue, following the recent liberation of two Yezidi girls.
“The main goal of the Kidnapped Yezidi Rescue Office is to follow up on the Yezidis abducted by ISIS terrorists in 2014, and the ones who were released,” al-Qadi told Kurdistan Chronicle.
“Thank God, two Yezidi girls – one of them 11 years old and the other 24 years old, from Kocho and Tel Uzair villages – were liberated,” he said.
“The number of the Yazidis who have been liberated to date is 3,581, and more than 2,500 are still in captivity. Our work will continue until the last person is liberated.”
On August 12, 2024, two Yezidi girls were rescued from the Al-Hawl camp in northeastern Syria and received by Iraqi officials at the Al-Yarubiyah border crossing.
Read More: Tenth Anniversary of Yezidi Genocide Commemorated
In August 2014, ISIS carried out a genocide against the Yezidis, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people. Almost 10 years later, thousands of Yezidi women and girls are still missing.
Read More: U.S. Urges Full Implementation of 2020 Sinjar Agreement
On July 23, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored that the United States is determined to find the remaining 2,600 missing Yezidis.
“We are determined to find them, to learn their fates, and to rescue those who remain alive,” Blinken said.
On August 6, the Consulate General of the Netherlands, the Consulate General of Germany, the Embassy Office of Canada, and the Kurdistan Film Commission organized a screening of Daughters of the Sun, a film directed by Dutch-Kurdish filmmaker Reber Dosky
Dosky underlined that more should be done to find missing Yezidis and that a number of them may fear to return or are unable to, even if their locations are known.
“One Yezidi girl ended up in Gaza. We should ask ourselves how this is possible. There are now Yezidi girls stuck in Urfa, in Turkey. I know their addresses, and I have their phone numbers, why don’t they come back?”
“Our civil society, government, and diplomats should do more to bring our people back,” Dosky said.
