03/05/2022

Regional and international outcry over Iraqi Army attack on Shigur (Shengal/Sinjar)

SHIGUR, Iraq — In the wake of the Iraqi Army’s large-scale attack on Shigur (Shengal or Sinjar) in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, regional and international figures have publicly called for an immediate end to the conflict and denounced the escalation by the Iraqi Army.

On Sunday evening, the Iraqi Army launched attacks on the Shengal Resistance Units (Yekîneyên Berxwedana Şengalê, YBŞ) following several days of talks between the two during which the Iraqi Army demanded the YBŞ handover a number of its checkpoints around the region.

Fighting first began around the village of Sinune, in the north of the Shigur region, and spread to Bab Shlo in the east and near Shigur city itself. On Monday, the Iraqi Army claimed to have taken over a YBŞ base in Sinune, having employed tanks, heavy artillery, helicopters, and jet fighters during the fighting.

Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Nadine Maenza condemned the recent attack in Shigur. “The Shengal Resistance Units simply want to defend the Yezidi people who survived the genocide,” she stated via Twitter, indicating that the YBŞ do not represent a threat to the Turkey or Iraq.

Nadia’s Initiative, a non-profit organization set up by Nobel Peace Prize winner, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador, and Yezidi Genocide survivor Nadia Murad, stated that the, “ongoing violent clashes in Sinjar are causing havoc among returnees to the region.” The organization blamed the recent fighting on the years of inaction regarding the “security and governance gridlock” in Shigur. 

Murad herself called on the international community to intervene and work with the Iraqi government to resolve the region’s ongoing security issues and protect civilians. “After years of displacement, recent returnees are once again forced to flee their homes due to current armed clashes in Sinjar,” she wrote via Twitter.

U.N. High Commission for Refugees Representative in Iraq Jean-Nicolas Beuze, citing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), stated that 646 families had fled into Duhok from Shigur due to the fighting.

Ismael Murad, President and Co-Founder of Sinjar Academy, lamented the current situation of Yezidis in Shigur, stating via Twitter that, “It took years and millions of dollars from [non-governmental organizations] to bring some [internally displaced persons] back to their homes and now we see a second phase of displacement.”

USCIRF Chair Maezna called on the Iraqi Army to immediately cease hostilities. “We call on the Iraqi military to cease hostilities in Sinjar and immediately resume efforts to implement the Sinjar Agreement, particularly to prevent another exodus of those precious few Yazidi genocide survivors who had returned to their homes.”

According to EzidiPress, negotiations between the Iraqi Army and YBŞ are currently underway.

Across the border in North and East SYria, Deputy Co-Chair of the Democratic Autonomous Administration (DAA) Badran Jia Kurd denounced the events in Shigur.

In a press statement, Jia Kurd regretted that the Iraqi Army used heavy weapons in its attack, pointing out that the Iraqi constitution guarantees full recognition of all ethnic, cultural, and religious affiliations in society and that the attack is a violation of the constitution.

He stressed that the Iraqi Army’s attacks are a continuation of the genocides that the Yezidis have been subjected to throughout history and have been made in agreement with other regional and local powers.

Yezidi Genocide by Islamic State

In August of 2014, during the violent conflict in Iraq, ISIS and other terrorist groups entered this conflict zone and took control of Mosul after the Iraqi Army and KDP Peshmerga fled, forcing minorities such as Yezidis and Christians to leave their historic areas in Shigur and Nineveh Plains.

Amid the inability of the Iraqi government and the international community to protect them, the Yezidi people were subjected to the most heinous, barbaric, and inhuman crimes by ISIS.

The Islamic State kidnapped more than 6,000 Yezidis during its attack on Shigur.

According to Nadia’s initiative, a non-profit organization set up by Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad, more than 2,800 women and children are still missing, nearly 200,000 Yazidi are still displaced within Iraqi territory, and more than 150,000 live in Shigur.

Mass graves of Yezidis killed by ISIS are still being discovered. According to official statistics, 27 of the 87 discovered mass graves have been opened in various areas of Shigur.

The YBŞ was established to protect the Yezidi people from the Islamic State after they were left defenseless by regional and national security forces. The YBŞ is an official member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and closely allied with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK). The PKK, the People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG), and Women’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Jin, YPJ), were the only regional forces that came to the aid of the Yezidi people trapped on Mount Shigur. While local Yezidis held off ISIS, the PKK, YPG, and YPJ opened a corridor allowing nearly 35,000 of the 50,000 people trapped on the mountain to escape.