Ten years have passed since the 3 August massacre in the Yazidi town of Shengal (Sinjar) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. When the ISIS gangs stood at the doors of Shengal, thousands of Peshmerga and Asayish (Local Security Force) of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) chaired by Masoud Barzani, who until that very moment controlled the Shengal town, made a quick getaway without shooting even one single bullet. As a result of the flight of the KDP Peshmerga, thousands of Yazidis were slaughtered by the ISIS gangs, thousands more were abducted, predominantly women and children, and sold at markets into slavery. Interestingly, shortly before the genocide took place, the KDP forces seized all the arms and weapons the Yazidis had at that time and took into custody three of the twelve guerrillas of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) and the Free Women's Troops (YJA-Star), who came to the rescue of the fleeing Yazidi people. All this made it indeed very clear how well-prepared and organized this extensive genocide actually was.

The Islamic State (ISIS) killed, captured and displaced all 400,000 Yazidi people living in Shengal on 3 August 2014, in a genocide that disproportionately affected children. About 10,000 Yazidis were killed or abducted. Half of all those executed were children, according to a report by multi-national researchers in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Nearly all (93%) of those who eventually died on Mount Shengal from injuries or lack of food and water were also children. Of the around 6,400 abducted Yazidis, it’s estimated about half were children, according to the Yazidi-led nonprofit Nadia’s Initiative. Boys as young as seven were sent to ISIS training camps and girls as young as nine were subjected to rape and sexual enslavement, according to a Save the Children report.

Hussein Kaidi, Director of the Iraqi Office for the Rescue of Abducted Yazidis, said that there is still no news from 2,800 Yazidi citizens abducted by ISIS during the genocidal onslaught ten years ago.

Hussein Kaidi stated that 3,583 Yazidi citizens abducted by ISIS have been rescued so far, adding that some abducted Yazidi citizens are being held in Hol Camp in Rojava.