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Will The Yazidi Nightmare Ever End?

Published July 30th, 2020 - 06:54 GMT

Nearly 2,000 Yazidi children freed from the grips of ISIS in recent years are still trapped by psychological and physical trauma.

Amnesty warns that children who faced torture, forced conscription, rape, and other abuses at the hands of ISIS were not getting the care they need.

ISIS swept through the region of the Yazidis in northwest Iraq in 2014. The extremists slaughtered thousands of men, abducted women and girls and forced boys to fight on their behalf.

To this day, child survivors suffer "debilitating long-term injuries," as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, mood wings, aggression and flashbacks.

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Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)

Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)

Yazidi woman Ashwaq Haji, allegedly used by the Islamic State group (IS) as a sex slave, holds portraits of jihadists' victims from her village of Kocho near Sinjar, as she visits the Lalish temple, in Lalish, northern Iraq, on August 15, 2018. - A young Yazidi woman who fled to Germany but returned home to northern Iraq says she cannot escape her Islamic State group captor who held her as a sex slave for three months. Ashwaq Haji, 19, says she ran into the man in a German supermarket in February. Traumatis

Yazidi woman Ashwaq Haji, allegedly used by the Islamic State group (IS) as a sex slave, holds portraits of jihadists' victims from her village of Kocho near Sinjar, as she visits the Lalish temple, in Lalish, northern Iraq, on August 15, 2018. - A young Yazidi woman who fled to Germany but returned home to northern Iraq says she cannot escape her Islamic State group captor who held her as a sex slave for three months. Ashwaq Haji, 19, says she ran into the man in a German supermarket in February. Traumatised by the encounter, she returned to Iraq the next month. Like many other Yazidis, she was kidnapped by IS when the jihadists seized swathes of Iraq in the summer of 2014. (AFP / -)

Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)

Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)

The Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority numbering around 550,000 in their heartland of northwest Iraq before IS swept through the rugged region in 2014 (Twitter)

The Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority numbering around 550,000 in their heartland of northwest Iraq before IS swept through the rugged region in 2014 (Twitter)

Saddam, (R) a 15 year old Yazidi boy and ten other Yazidi children gather in a area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, after fleeing the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz, on February 23, 2019. The eleven Yazidi children were rescued by US-backed forces from IS's last sliver of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. (AFP / -)

Saddam, (R) a 15 year old Yazidi boy and ten other Yazidi children gather in a area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, after fleeing the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz, on February 23, 2019. The eleven Yazidi children were rescued by US-backed forces from IS's last sliver of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. (AFP / -)

After capture, Yazidi women & children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters… who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one-fifth of the slaves were transferred to the IS's authority to be divided as Khums (Twitter)

After capture, Yazidi women & children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters… who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one-fifth of the slaves were transferred to the IS's authority to be divided as Khums (Twitter)

Displaced Iraqi Yazidi children stand next to a tent at a camp in Khanke, a few kilometres from the Turkish border in Iraq's Dohuk province, on June 24, 2019. (AFP / Safin Hamed)

Displaced Iraqi Yazidi children stand next to a tent at a camp in Khanke, a few kilometres from the Turkish border in Iraq's Dohuk province, on June 24, 2019. (AFP / Safin Hamed)

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, are seen at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area some 15 kilometres from the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on May 20, 2015. (AFP / Safin Hamed)

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, are seen at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area some 15 kilometres from the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on May 20, 2015. (AFP / Safin Hamed)

Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)
Yazidi woman Ashwaq Haji, allegedly used by the Islamic State group (IS) as a sex slave, holds portraits of jihadists' victims from her village of Kocho near Sinjar, as she visits the Lalish temple, in Lalish, northern Iraq, on August 15, 2018. - A young Yazidi woman who fled to Germany but returned home to northern Iraq says she cannot escape her Islamic State group captor who held her as a sex slave for three months. Ashwaq Haji, 19, says she ran into the man in a German supermarket in February. Traumatis
Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)
The Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority numbering around 550,000 in their heartland of northwest Iraq before IS swept through the rugged region in 2014 (Twitter)
Saddam, (R) a 15 year old Yazidi boy and ten other Yazidi children gather in a area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, after fleeing the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz, on February 23, 2019. The eleven Yazidi children were rescued by US-backed forces from IS's last sliver of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. (AFP / -)
After capture, Yazidi women & children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters… who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one-fifth of the slaves were transferred to the IS's authority to be divided as Khums (Twitter)
Displaced Iraqi Yazidi children stand next to a tent at a camp in Khanke, a few kilometres from the Turkish border in Iraq's Dohuk province, on June 24, 2019. (AFP / Safin Hamed)
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, are seen at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area some 15 kilometres from the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on May 20, 2015. (AFP / Safin Hamed)
Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)
Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)
Yazidi woman Ashwaq Haji, allegedly used by the Islamic State group (IS) as a sex slave, holds portraits of jihadists' victims from her village of Kocho near Sinjar, as she visits the Lalish temple, in Lalish, northern Iraq, on August 15, 2018. - A young Yazidi woman who fled to Germany but returned home to northern Iraq says she cannot escape her Islamic State group captor who held her as a sex slave for three months. Ashwaq Haji, 19, says she ran into the man in a German supermarket in February. Traumatis
Yazidi woman Ashwaq Haji, allegedly used by the Islamic State group (IS) as a sex slave, holds portraits of jihadists' victims from her village of Kocho near Sinjar, as she visits the Lalish temple, in Lalish, northern Iraq, on August 15, 2018. - A young Yazidi woman who fled to Germany but returned home to northern Iraq says she cannot escape her Islamic State group captor who held her as a sex slave for three months. Ashwaq Haji, 19, says she ran into the man in a German supermarket in February. Traumatised by the encounter, she returned to Iraq the next month. Like many other Yazidis, she was kidnapped by IS when the jihadists seized swathes of Iraq in the summer of 2014. (AFP / -)
Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)
Rights group found that 1,992 children who faced torture, rape and other abuses are not getting the care they need (Twitter)
The Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority numbering around 550,000 in their heartland of northwest Iraq before IS swept through the rugged region in 2014 (Twitter)
The Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority numbering around 550,000 in their heartland of northwest Iraq before IS swept through the rugged region in 2014 (Twitter)
Saddam, (R) a 15 year old Yazidi boy and ten other Yazidi children gather in a area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, after fleeing the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz, on February 23, 2019. The eleven Yazidi children were rescued by US-backed forces from IS's last sliver of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. (AFP / -)
Saddam, (R) a 15 year old Yazidi boy and ten other Yazidi children gather in a area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, after fleeing the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz, on February 23, 2019. The eleven Yazidi children were rescued by US-backed forces from IS's last sliver of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. (AFP / -)
After capture, Yazidi women & children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters… who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one-fifth of the slaves were transferred to the IS's authority to be divided as Khums (Twitter)
After capture, Yazidi women & children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters… who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one-fifth of the slaves were transferred to the IS's authority to be divided as Khums (Twitter)
Displaced Iraqi Yazidi children stand next to a tent at a camp in Khanke, a few kilometres from the Turkish border in Iraq's Dohuk province, on June 24, 2019. (AFP / Safin Hamed)
Displaced Iraqi Yazidi children stand next to a tent at a camp in Khanke, a few kilometres from the Turkish border in Iraq's Dohuk province, on June 24, 2019. (AFP / Safin Hamed)
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, are seen at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area some 15 kilometres from the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on May 20, 2015. (AFP / Safin Hamed)
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, are seen at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharya area some 15 kilometres from the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on May 20, 2015. (AFP / Safin Hamed)

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