Thousands of Yazidi people were massacred or kidnapped and reduced to the status of slaves in the genocidal onslaught launched by ISIS against the Yazidi town of Shengal (Sinjar) on August 3, 2014.

The traces of the genocidal campaign, which is recognized as genocide by the international community, continue to surface even years later with the remains unearthed from mass graves.

With the opening of the 54th mass grave in Shengal on February 5, efforts to identify the victims of massacres have accelerated.

The identified remains had been exhumed from a mass grave opened five years ago in the village of Kocho.

Since March 2019, the remains of thousands of people have been unearthed, while around 40 mass graves are yet to be opened. The fate of thousands of people abducted and massacred in ISIS' genocidal campaign against the Yazidi community still remains unclear.

The remains recovered by the Forensic Medicine Institute are being stored at the institution in Baghdad. Officials say the victims can be identified after DNA tests are completed. However, only a limited number of people have been identified from the remains recovered so far.

The identities of 32 people exhumed from the mass grave in Kocho were announced by the Department for the Protection of Mass Graves and the Martyrs' Institution,

The authorities have not yet specified a date for the delivery of the remains of the identified victims to their families. The identified victims include children, women and the elderly.

Background

The city of Shengal in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is the last contiguous settlement area of the Yazidi community. Thousands of Yazidis were murdered, and thousands of women and children were taken prisoner in the 3 August 2014 onslaught on Shengal by ISIS militants. While ISIS began murdering Yazidis in Shengal, the Peshmerga left, leaving the Yazidis behind, unprotected. The guerrillas of HPG (People’s Defense Forces) and YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) and fighters of the YPG (People’s Defense Units) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) came to the Yazidi people's aid in the face of ISIS aggression. Thanks to a months-long selfless struggle, the city was liberated on 13 November 2015. After the liberation of the city, the HPG and YPG/YPJ subsequently withdrew in 2017. People who returned to their land after Shengal's independence reformed, established defensive units and built their institutions.