According to the Yazidi House (Mala Êzîdiyan) of the Cizîrê region in northern Syria, a Yazidi girl has been freed from the captivity of the jihadist militia ISIS. 17-year-old Leyla Murad I. had been abducted from her residence in Southern Kurdistan/Northern Iraq to an ISIS household during the attack on Shengal in August 2014.

Her last place of residence was the Hol Camp near Hesekê. There she was abused as a slave by ISIS supporters who were captured by the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) during the final operation against the last ISIS bastion Baghouz in Deir ez-Zor in Eastern Syria last March. Through meticulous research by the Yazidi House, her whereabouts could be determined. The institution now provides psychological first assistance and health care for the young woman. Afterwards she will be reunited with her family.

The Yazidi House is an institution dedicated to the search for the abducted Yazidis from Shengal. According to information from the association's board of directors, about 3,000 Yazidi men and women are still missing. So far 55 Yazidi women and 179 Yazidi children have been freed from the Hol Camp However, the organization assumes that there are far more deportees in the camp.

Attack on Shengal

On August 3, 2014, with the onslaught of the ISIS in Shengal (Sinjar), the Yazidi people were left to another genocide, the 74th one they suffered throughout their history. Those who could save themselves fled to the mountains. On the way there, countless children and elderly people died of thirst. Those who could no longer make it out of the town were brutally murdered. Thousands of young Yazidi women were kidnapped and raped, maltreated and sold in the slave markets of the ISIS. More than 12,000 people were murdered, according to the UN, and more than 400,000 were driven from their homes. Several women, men and children are still missing today.