1. Introduction
Sinjar (also called Shingal District) district lies in Ninewa governorate, in northern Iraq, with the Syrian border on its north and west. It is about 130 kilometers from Mosul, which is the capital of Ninewa (administered by Federal Iraq). It is approximately the same distance to Turkey and Zakho Camp in Dohuk Governorate (administered by the Kurdistan Region Government, KRG). Both the town and district of Sinjar are the primary home of the Yezidi population as well as some Shi’a and Sunni Muslims, Turkmen and Christians.
2. The ISIL attack on Sinjar of 2014 to 2015
Yezidis in northern Iraq have been persecuted and marginalized for centuries. Each attack on Yezidis is termed by them as a “ferman”. So far the number of fermans against Yezidis number between 72 to 74 (Fisher et al. 2020: 260).
On 3 August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacked first Mosul and then Sinjar district, before moving to other regions in Iraq to perpetrate what has been recorded by the United Nations as “war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide” (UN Security Council Resolution 2651, 2022). An estimated 400,000 people fled the region to neighbouring Kurdistan, at least 5,000 people were killed 6,000 women and children were enslaved and more than 2,800 people are still missing today1 . IS started justified the killing and enslaving as Yezidis due to the Yezidi lack of a written religion and calling Yezidism “a pagan minority” or “mushrikin” due to their “worship of Iblis” (satan) (Fisher et al. 2020: 250).
The Yezidi population was separated by gender and age. Most were executed, while men, including young boys were asked to either convert to Islam or be executed. Those who converted were either held as slaves or forcibly drafted into ISIL. Some of the women and girls were sold to the local Sunni population as domestic slaves, but the majority became sex slaves for ISIL fighters and local male population. Some girls and women were sold as sex slaves to men from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia as well as other countries. These women and girls have suffered incomprehensible violence, including torture and rape (Nicolaus/Yuce 2017: 197). However, not only Yezidis suffered from ISIL. Although ISIL state that they are Sunni Muslims, other groups in the population were also targeted by violence.
This includes Shi’a, Sunni, Turkmen, Christian and other groups such as those without a religion. In the Badush Prison Massacre for example, IS attacked the prison and freed Sunni Muslims and forced Shi’a Muslims to convert and subsequently shooting around 600 people. The gravesite and identification of some of the family members was first conducted in 2021 (France 24 14.06.21).
ISIL destroyed more than 80% of public infrastructure and 70% of civilian homes in and around Sinjar city (UNDP August 2020).
The extent of the atrocities committed is still being uncovered as even today, 9 years after these events, mass graves are still being located. For example this summer, on 11 June 2023, a mass grave of bodies of Turkmen civilians killed by ISIL was discovered in Sinjar and on 24 June a mass grave with 13 bodies of civilians executed by ISIL was found in the old town of Ninewa (ACLED Dataset accessed 17 July 2023).