SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Sunday the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) makes all efforts to alleviate the suffering of Yazidi people in Sinjar.
Barzani met with Nadia Murad, a Yazidi activist and the first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking of the United Nations, in Erbil on Sunday.
The premier stressed that the KRG “is doing its utmost to alleviate the suffering of the Yazidi brothers and sisters, secure a decent living for them, and ensure the return of the displaced to their places,” a KRG statement said.
“The Yazidis are an authentic and important component of the people of Kurdistan,” he said.
“The Kurdistan Region supports the legitimate rights of the Yezidis, especially since hundreds of Peshmerga fighters were martyred in order to liberate Sinjar from the grip of ISIS,” Barzani was quoted as saying.
Islamic State overran the Yazidi faith’s heartland of Sinjar in the Kurdistan Region in 2014, forcing young women into servitude as “wives” for its fighters and massacring men and older women.
The militants shot, beheaded, burned alive or kidnapped more than 9,000 members of the minority religion, in what the United Nations has called a genocidal campaign against them. According to community leaders, more than 3,000 Yazidis remain unaccounted for.
The Peshmerga forces backed by the Iraqi military and U.S.-led Coalition forces liberated Sinjar from ISIS militants in November 2015.
Barzani called for the normalization of the situation and the return of stability to Sinjar district, according to the statement.
Murad, for her part, stressed the importance of intensifying efforts to find out the fate of the abducted and disappeared Yazidi women, the KRG statement said.
She also demanded the implementation of an agreement between the KRG and the federal government to achieve stability, justice and peace in the district, the KRG stated.
In October, the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reached an agreement to normalize the governance and security situation in Sinjar.
