IRAQ-SECURITY/YAZIDI REFUGEES Yazidis shelter in U.N. camps after fleeing Islamic State militants

Record ID: 274636

  • Title: IRAQ-SECURITY/YAZIDI REFUGEES Yazidis shelter in U.N. camps after fleeing Islamic State militants
  • Date: 24th August 2014
  • Summary: DOHUK, IRAQ (AUGUST 23, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF YAZIDI REFUGEES OUTSIDE UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE CAMP TENTS VARIOUS OF FAMILIES SITTING OUTSIDE TO EAT VARIOUS OF YAZIDIS LIGHTING FIRE FAMILY SITTING OUTSIDE TENT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YAZIDI REFUGEE, NASSIH, SAYING: (CONTINUES OVER REPORTER ASKING QUESTION) NASSIH: "There's no drinkable water, no bathrooms, no food." REPORT
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1KX86QA74XQQYNCV2ECA7ASO
  • Story Text: Iraq's Yazidi religious minority, a population found in the northern part of the country who were forced to flee their homes by the advance of violent Islamic State (IS) militants, continue to face difficulties in the refugee camps many have taken residence in at Dohuk.
    As IS fighters have swept through northern Iraq, violence has seen thousands of Christians and others, including Shi'ite Muslims and members of the Yazidi sect, killed or driven from their homes.
    The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism who are part of the country's Kurdish minority, have paid the highest price for Islamic State's dramatic advance through northern Iraq.
    Islamic State militants, widely seen as more hard-line than al Qaeda, storm into villages armed with machine guns and give Yazidis a simple choice: convert to Islam or die.
    But in the relative safety of refugee camps set up by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, aid workers are still struggling with feeding those who made it there amid the ongoing danger presented by IS.
    A lack of basic services, including healthcare, is exacerbating issues in the makeshift camps in the Kurdish Iraqi province, but Nassih, whose father and two relatives were killed by IS militants in Sinjar, said their biggest concern was food and drink.
    "There's no drinkable water, no bathrooms, no food," he told Reuters TV, adding that he felt if his father were still with him they would be in a better situation.
    "If my father was alive none of this would have happened - he would have found a solution and then maybe none of this would happen," he said.
    Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since IS militants swept through much of the north and west of Iraq, threatening to break up the country after declaring a caliphate that stretches across into strife-ridden Syria as well.
    About 200,000 displaced Yazidis have settled in Iraq's Kurdistan region since August, when the city of Sinjar and neighbouring areas were seized by Islamic State, according to UNHCR.
    At least 11,000 people from the Yazidi minority have taken shelter inside Iraq's neighbour Syria, and about 300 more are crossing the Peshkabour border every day, the agency said, with children suffering from the difficult living conditions.
    Some have managed to find work locally on farms, including Mohssen Zaidon, a Yazidi refugee.
    "We're working to feed ourselves and to bring in money for our families. We are working to buy food and eat. If we do not work, we will die like those who fled Sinjar, as they had no food to eat," he said, a reference to Mount Sinjar, where thousands who feared death at the hands of the militants took refuge with little access to food and water.
    "Without working we will end up like them, so we need to work," he said.
    Witnesses and officials say IS has executed hundreds of members of Iraq's Yazidi, while the group on Wednesday (August 20) released a video seeking to show it enlightened hundreds of members of the religious minority by converting them to Islam.
    The threat to the Yazidis was one reason cited by U.S. President Barack Obama when he launched U.S. air strikes against Islamic State in parts of Iraq earlier this month.
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