Nechirvan Barzani vows to keep searching for missing Yazidis

Shafaq News- Erbil

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani pledged on Wednesday that efforts to free Yazidis still held captive and determine the fate of those missing would continue "as long as there is a single abductee," more than a decade after ISIS attacked the community.

Barzani's remarks were delivered on his behalf by his aide Dilshad Shahab at the launch in Erbil of the Survivors' Revival Network, a Yazidi survivors' initiative. “The Kurdistan Region will remain a supporter of Yazidis and a protector of their rights and identity, in Kurdistan, Iraq and wherever they live,” he said.

Delivering justice for survivors, implementing Iraq's Yazidi Female Survivors Law, enabling displaced Yazidis to return home and rebuilding Sinjar and other Yazidi areas remain key priorities, according to Barzani.

The Yazidis, a religious minority concentrated in northern Iraq, were targeted by ISIS in 2014 when the group overran Sinjar, killing, abducting, and enslaving thousands in what the United Nations has recognized as genocide. Many remain displaced, and the fate of many abductees is still unknown.

According to the Kurdistan Region's Office for Kidnapped Affairs, 2,526 Yazidis remain missing 12 years after the ISIS genocide, while 3,595 abductees have been rescued since the 2014 assault on Sinjar.

Read more: Yazidis struggle to return home a decade after ISIS atrocities