Portrait of Darin in her home in Sinjar, Iraq. Darin, a young Yazidi girl living in Sinjar, Iraq participates in summer activities at a public school supported by the IRC. July 31, 2019.
A Yezidi child plays with a toy gun inside Rwanda refugee camp on August 16, 2016. Seven years since the Islamic State began it’s assault on the Yezidi minority, almost 200,000 Yezidis are still living in displacement camps in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. In 2019, an Amnesty International report warned that Yezidi child survivors of the Islamic State face an unprecedented physical and mental health crisis. Yezidi child survivors of the genocide are not getting the critical psychological help they need and have been essentially abandoned by governments.
Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga fighters wake up in the city of Sinjar the morning after the forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, took back the city from Islamic State militants. November 14, 2015. Heavy airstrikes by US-led coalition forces paved the way for Kurdish ground forces to take back Sinjar City after militants from the Islamic State rampaged the city.
Sunrise over the heavily damaged city of Sinjar the day after US- back Iraqi-Kurdish Peshmerga forces repelled militants from the Islamic State from the northern Iraqi city, November 14, 2015. The Islamic State’s destruction of Sinjar and it’s enslavement and murder of the majority Yazidi population of the city has prompted the United Nations to declare the actions of the extremists as an attempted genocide. Heavy airstrikes by US-led coalition forces paved the way for Kurdish ground forces to take back Sinjar City after militants from the Islamic State rampaged the city.
Members of the Syrian Women’s Protection Unit (YPJ) rummage through a housed used by the Islamic State in downtown Sinjar, Iraq on November 14, 2015, a day after their forces helped Iraqi Kurdish fighters, backed by US-led coalition air support, liberate the city from the Islamic State. The unit is searching for unexploded improvised explosive devices, as well as any potential remaining Islamic State fighters. The involvement of the YPJ and PKK in Sinjar’s liberation highlights the areas unique location along ethnic and territorial fault lines in the region. Female fighters in the YPJ militia were instrumental in fighting back the Islamic State in 2014, allowing the Yezidi refugees trapped on top of Sinjar mountain safe passage into Syria. Thousands of Yezidis were saved in the rescue mission as hundreds of women and men aligned with the militia were killed in the fighting. They are just one of the many forces vying for control of Sinjar today.
Members of the Women's Protection Unit (YPJ) survey destruction of Sinjar City after it was liberated from the Islamic State, Nov. 17, 2015. In August 2014, the PKK and its Syrian affiliates helped Yazidi civilians to gain safe passage from Sinjar mountain, where they were besieged by ISIS. A little over a year later, they participated in liberating Sinjar City, though outside the main US-led coalition backed Iraqi-Kurdish forces. They remain in the area today, one of several competing forces vying for a toehold in this strategic corner of Iraq.
A woman (center) who escaped enslavement by the Islamic State stands in front of her temporary housing with her mother and father on the top of Sinjar Mountain on May 13, 2016. The family does not trust the Kurdish Peshmerga after they abandoned Sinjar as the Islamic State took over the city, so they refuse to move to the displacement camps inside Iraqi Kurdistan, instead relying on the limited aid services that reach Sinjar Mountain.
Surviving members of the Yazidi village of Kocho, northern Iraq, mourn at the infamous location of Kocho’s school on August 15, 2023. The school was the location were the Islamic State gathered up all the villages before dividing them into groups to be executed or abducted. In the foreground, new graves are being dug to bury the remains of the nearby 500 victims exhumed from the mass graves around Kocho. It is impossible to articulate, visualize, or understand the atrocities this community has faced, the horrors that they remember, and the pain survivors continue to live with. Any progress towards holding ISIS to account for their crimes or justice for the Yazidi community has been painfully slow.
Photos of the nearly 500 villagers from Kocho who were murdered by the Islamic State on display in the village’s school on August 14, 2019.
Surviving members of the Yazidi village of Kocho, northern Iraq, mourn at the locations of mass graves where family members were murdered by the Islamic State as the extremists swept through Yazidi villages and towns in the summer of 2014 on August 14, 2019. Surviving villagers believe it is not possible to return back to the Yazidi village of Kocho after what the community has endured: nearly all 500 members of the community were executed by the Islamic State in the summer of 2014. All women of marrying age and children were abducted into slavery.
A bare tree on the top of Sinjar Mountain is filled with fabric knots, an ancient Yazidi religious ritual symbolizing the community's prayers. May 13, 2016. Some were tied during the summer of 2014, when Yazidis were stuck on the top of Sinjar mountain, surrounded by the Islamic State.
Surviving members of the Yazidi village of Kocho, northern Iraq, mourn at the infamous location of Kocho’s school on August 15, 2023. The school was the location were the Islamic State gathered up all the villagers before dividing them into groups to be executed or abducted. In the foreground, new graves are being dug to bury the remains of the nearby 500 victims exhumed from the mass graves around Kocho.
A human skull and other remains lie in the site of one of the many Yezidi mass graves discovered around Sinjar Mountain. Iraqi workers and international investigators have begun to excavate some of the 17 mass graves around the Sinjar region, believed to be containing the bodies of some of the 3000 Yazidis killed by the Islamic State. In conjunction with the International Commission on Missing Persons and UNITAD, the United Nations investigative body for ISIS war crimes, the Iraqi government has identified about 150 Yazidi victims through DNA tests, but relocating all the 3000 Yazidis killed will take much more time and resources.
Worn carpet remains from a ceremony the community held at one of the mass graves at the edge of Kocho village, northern Iraq. Kocho is a Yazidi village which was devastated in the summer of 2014 after the Islamic State murdered nearly 500 village members and abducted young women and children into slavery. August 14, 2019.
A grandmother embraces her grandson, Milad for the first time after a successful rescue mission brought him back from Islamic State’s territory in Syria to northern Iraq on May 14, 2016. Milad (age six when pictured) spent 22 months in Islamic State captivity with his mother as she was sold between Islamic State fighters. The family paid ransom money to the Islamic State through a network of smugglers to facilitate Milad’s return. They were not able to pay the amount requested to also free his mother. She remained in Islamic State territory and is still among the Yezidi’s who are unaccounted for. Milad’s face has been concealed to protect his identity as requested by the family.
Members of the Ezidxan Protection Force (aka the HPE), a Yezidi militia, during a military exercise in the foothills of Sinjar mountain, northern Iraq on May 14, 2016.The Yezidis practice an ancient pre-Zoroastrian religion within their conservative community in northern Iraq. Their position on Iraq’s ethnic and territorial fault lines, and their unique blend of Islamic and Christian influences within their religion, have long left them open to coercion and persecution. In the summer of 2014, the Islamic State swept into the Yezidi heartland of Sinjar, killing thousands of men, abducting women and girls for enslavement, and sending young boys to military camps. By the Islamic State’s extreme views, Yazidis were considered devil-worshippers, fit only for enslavement, indoctrination or eradication. Thousands of abducted Yazidis lie in mass graves, or remain missing. The campaign against them has been recognized as attempted genocide, and the shocking testimony of survivors brought international attention to what once a hermetic community. The HPE was founded in response to these atrocities, the first time in Yezidi history where the community has sought to take up arms to retake and secure its land. A threadbare assortment of 3,000 lightly-armed troops, the militia nonetheless exemplifies a fragmenting Iraq that is yet to coagulate post-Islamic State. Rather than becoming an independent protector as once hoped, the HPE has been engulfed in years of proxy conflict and competition between local and international actors. Commanders still call on the international community for support to create their own security force for Sinjar.
Members of the Ezidxan Protection Force (aka the HPE), a Yezidi militia, during a military exercise in the foothills of Sinjar mountain, northern Iraq on May 14, 2016.The Yezidis practice an ancient pre-Zoroastrian religion within their conservative community in northern Iraq. Their position on Iraq’s ethnic and territorial fault lines, and their unique blend of Islamic and Christian influences within their religion, have long left them open to coercion and persecution. In the summer of 2014, the Islamic State swept into the Yezidi heartland of Sinjar, killing thousands of men, abducting women and girls for enslavement, and sending young boys to military camps. By the Islamic State’s extreme views, Yazidis were considered devil-worshippers, fit only for enslavement, indoctrination or eradication. Thousands of abducted Yazidis lie in mass graves, or remain missing. The campaign against them has been recognized as attempted genocide, and the shocking testimony of survivors brought international attention to what once a hermetic community. The HPE was founded in response to these atrocities, the first time in Yezidi history where the community has sought to take up arms to retake and secure its land. A threadbare assortment of 3,000 lightly-armed troops, the militia nonetheless exemplifies a fragmenting Iraq that is yet to coagulate post-Islamic State. Rather than becoming an independent protector as once hoped, the HPE has been engulfed in years of proxy conflict and competition between local and international actors. Commanders still call on the international community for support to create their own security force for Sinjar.
Yazidi men rebuild religious temples in the town of Bashiqa in northern Iraq on June 21, 2017. The temples were destroyed by the Islamic State after the militants overran the predominately Christian and Yazidi town in 2014.
Due to lack of space inside the camps and over-crowding, some displaced Yazidi’s live in semi-built houses and structures in the valley’s outside the camps.
A neon red arrow helps alert people to the opening of a new restaurant in Sinjar City, northern Iraq on August 15, 2019. SSome Yezidi residents have returned to Sinjar, but most of the city lies in ruins. While the Islamic State overran the city nearly a decade ago, targeting the Yezidi minority known to the region, life in the city has barely been able to heal, repair, and rebuild. Most of Sinjar is destroyed; bureaucratic barriers and lack of services continue to make it difficult for Yezidis in displacement camps to return.
Students walk passed damaged buildings on their way home from school in Sinjar, Iraq on July 31, 2019. Despite being liberated for more than a decade, most of the city of Sinjar still lies in ruins, with basic services barely working.
Residents of Sinjar, northern Iraq, at a sheep market being held in the city.
Thousands of Yazidis gather for a candle lighting ceremony to celebrate Yezidi New Year in Lalish, northern Iraq On April 19, 2016. Families bring picnics, pay their respect to religious elders, and play traditional games dotted around the holy Yezidi site. There is a joyous, almost festival atmosphere to the two day event. While families continue to grieve for loved ones remaining in Islamic State captivity, the community dedicated this year’s celebration to those kidnapped and vowed to continue to practice the Yezidi faith and keep their community strong. The Yezidis practice an ancient pre-Zoroastrian religion within their conservative community in northern Iraq. Their position on Iraq’s ethnic and territorial fault lines, and the unique blend of Islamic and Christian influences within their religion, have long left them open to coercion and persecution.
A newly paved road has been one of the only repairs done to the heavy damaged market area of the city of Sinjar, northern Iraq, after it was liberated by US-backed Kurdish forces in 2015. Some Yezidi residents have returned to Sinjar, but most of the city lies in ruins. While the Islamic State overran the city nearly a decade ago, targeting the Yezidi minority known to the region, life in the city has barely been able to heal, repair, and rebuild. Most of Sinjar is destroyed; bureaucratic barriers and lack of services continue to make it difficult for Yezidis in displacement camps to return.