Governments from across the globe, including the United States, the European Union, and the government of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, issued statements on Saturday remembering the crimes committed by the Islamic State against the Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims. Among those most deeply affected by the Islamic State’s reign of terror was the Yazidi community, a Kurdish religious community found primarily in northern Iraq and Syria.
On August 3, 2014, the Islamic State massacred 3,000 civilians, most of them Yazidi, in Iraq’s remote Sinjar province. That day saw another 7,000 women and children kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery, according to a statement released by the EU.
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United States State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller highlighted that “over 2,600 Yezidi women and girls remain missing, and the identification and exhumation of mass graves continue.” Additionally, the United States, the European Union, and the Kurdish government all called for the implementation of the Sinjar Agreement to continue so that the displaced Yazidi community can return to their homeland safely.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, who heads the Kurdish government in Erbil, released a statement acknowledging his government’s ongoing commitment to “working with the federal government to normalize the situation in Sinjar and its surrounding areas and to help redevelop the region to facilitate a dignified return of the Yazidi community to their homes.” Barzani highlighted that armed groups and illegal militias still maintain control over parts of Sinwar, preventing the authorities from finding many still-missing individuals or from many Yazidis returning home.