Êzidîs Foundation released a summary report about what happened to Êzidîs in the wake of the ISIS onslaught and massacre in Shengal region in August, 2014.

The summary report by the Êzidîs Foundation, revealing the extent of the tragedy, is as follows;

“On August 3, 2014 ISIS attacked Shengal city and all the villages of Shengal driving modern trucks, military vehicles, and armed with advanced weapons.

At the beginning, the people with arms resisted ISIS for more than three hours, but unfortunately the inequality between them and ISIS, who were equipped with advanced weapons, led to ISIS control over whole Shengal city and its villages with support from the Arabic people in the region. 

Outcry of children and women was overload as massacres were taking place in Shengal and its villages, with ISIS gangs shooting everywhere and everyone, whether they resisted or not, and those trying to escape. In this tragic scene, ISIS controlled over all Shengal and the Nineveh plain.

Below are some statistics showing the extent of the tragedy:

In the same day, 1293 unarmed people were killed and more than 6417 were captured, including 3547 females and 2870 males. 

Women were sold in slave markets in Mosul, Tal Afar, Al-Rigga and Deir Al-Zour.

340,000 people were displaced from Sinjar and 60,000 from Bashiqa, Bahzani and other areas in the Southern Kurdistan region, some of them fled to Turkey and Syria.

ISIS also blew up 68 religious temples, and Arab residents neighboring the Shengal city spoiled Êzidî villages under supervision of Arabic sheikh and support and protection of ISIS. 

Out of the 6417 people captured, 3019 could be rescued; who include 1084 women, 334 men, 808 girls and 793 boys.

A total of 3398 people are still in ISIS captivity and these include 1655 women and 1743 men.

According to the sources, there are about 1600 kids who ISIS took to special training camp for suicide attacks and mission. 

The number of orphan children resulting from ISIS invasion reached 2745. 

Also, 43 mass graves have been discovered so far, with an estimated 35 victims in each.

In addition, hundreds of people got wounded , disabled and thousands are suffering  psychological trauma due to what they experienced or witnessed at the hands of ISIS.

The infrastructure of the Shengal area was also destroyed and most of the houses were taken apart. Besides, many other houses were spoiled by Arab neighbors.

MIGRATION

As an inevitable result of the continued crimes against Êzidîs about 90,000 have migrated abroad seeking asylum in European countries. There are still thousands of Êzidîs on the border in Turkey, Greece and elsewhere who want to be refugee in one of the European countries, suffering from difficult living.

KOCHO VILLAGE MASSACRE

On August 3, 2014. ISIS invaded the Kocho village in Shengal and asked the families to stay at home, promising to protect them and leave them in peace in their homes. 

ISIS then sent some of his fighters to Ahmed Jasoo, who was Koch sheikh, and asked them to convert to Islam. The people in Kocho refused that, while ISIS gave them time until August 15 to do that, but they refused again to convert to Islam. 

In the early morning of August 15, 2014 when the time ISIS gave to convert to Islam ended, ISIS entered the village, they took all the people to school yard in middle of the village, and confiscated people's all belongings including gold, jewelry, money, mobile phones and cars. 

ISIS then  took the men to out of Kocho village and more than 400 men were executed, according to eyewitnesses who survived that massacre that was perpetrated in nearby valleys on both sides of the village.

Hours later, women and children were moved to various locations in order to disperse them and break them away their families so that they would continue to be in a state of fear and terror.

The number of families who was in Koch village was 300 at the time of ISIS invasion and the number of inhabitants was 1738. There were 1200 people physically present in the village during the ISIS attack.

According to figures, 459 people were killed in Kocho village on August 15, 2014, who include 388 men and 71 women.

While 727 girls and women were enslaved, the number of orphan children reached 42.No one survived the massacre from 63 families.

Only one person survived from 47 families and two persons from 17 others. 25 families survived with all their members and one person was killed or captured from 146 families.

Also, 17 people survived the massacre. 544 inhabitants were not in the at village when ISIS attacked.

SITUATION OF DISPLACED ÊZIDÎS

400.000 people were displaced from Shengal, Bashiqa and Bahzani and these were resettled in camps, incomplete buildings and even in village streets inside and outside of the Southern Kurdistan region.

Due to the enormous number of displaced people and lack of cooperation between the  Southern Kurdistan government and the central government in Baghdad which refused to offer help, the resulting lack of aid led to many problems, mainly in the camps. This caused additional suffering to the displaced people; emergence of diseases, especially dermatology, among  children due to the negligence and non-lifting and destruction of waste and tailings in the camps.

Most of roads leading to camps are unpaved, also most of roads inside the camps are unpaved, which cause feeling of uncomfortably and unsafety, in addition to the accumulation of dust and dirt on the food of the families and shops inside camps.

Electricity is cut off for many hours in most camps, water supply is contaminated and unsuitable for drinking, and there are many cases of poisoning and diarrhea among children, and many people are suffering from lack of food. 

Schools in camps are not enough for students due to lack of teaching staff, and financial situation of families in camps is very poor because of the high unemployment rate. 

There are many insects in camps due to the lack of water and showers especially lice and scabies which cause many diseases among children. 

Also there are few medical staff in camps and a remarkable lack in especially emergency situation and health center in camps lack medication and physicians.

In some camps the number of restrooms is not enough and a lot of people share it which leads to problems. In addition some families consist of 8-9 members and they have only one tent which enough only for sitting, also some areas are too bad to live in. 

Registered suicides cases reached 28 until March 2017 due to the psychological pressure and living situations.

LATEST SITUATION

Displaced Êzidîs are still in a very bad situation, hundred thousands of them live in camps, thousands of them need rehabilitation to normal social life, thousands of survivors are in need of rehabilitation and lack daily life needs.

Hundreds of orphan children receive no support and hundreds of elderly people lack the simplest living needs, while thousands of sick people and disabled persons need medication in camps. Dozens of people are waiting for surgical operation and they do not have money for physical check.

In addition to the thousands of girls and women who are still held captive by ISIS, several  children are trained for terrorist operations.”

Êzidîs Foundation stated that they hope international community and humanitarian organizations will offer help to come up with a solution to the mentioned problems suffered by the Êzidî community after the ISIS onslaught and massacre.