Xezal Huseyn (90) and Xwedêda Hesen Şêx Xidir (80), two survivors of the 2014 Islamic State (ISIS) genocide in Sinjar (Shengal), Iraq, shared their harrowing experiences in an interview with Mezopotamya Agency on Wednesday, painting a vivid picture of desperation and survival. They emphasised the importance of Yazidi unity and criticised the Peshmerga forces for their actions as the Yazidis tried to escape.
On 3 August 2014, ISIS launched a genocidal campaign in Sinjar (Shengal), Iraq, resulting in the massacre of thousands of Yazidis. Women and children were abducted, and tens of thousands sought refuge on Sinjar Mountain.
The attack was repelled by a group of 12 Kurdish guerrillas from the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), who opened a corridor to transport Yazidis to safe areas.
By the end of 2015, a significant struggle led to the liberation of Sinjar, with the HPG playing a leading role. Thousands of Yazidis returned home and began to re-organise themselves through assemblies and communes.
When ISIS attacked, Huseyn recalled, “a great massacre occurred. In Shengal, there were corpses in every valley. The corpses were abandoned. You were either going to die or run away.” Huseyn’s account paints a vivid picture of desperation, of 17 people hiding in one house, surviving on “only two pieces of dry and hard bread,” rationed over days. “Even if ISIS didn’t kill us, we were in a situation where we would die of starvation,” she said.
Huseyn’s family survived by eating maize from a nearby field and eventually decided to walk to Kurdish-led northern Syria. “We were hungry and thirsty for days with my children and grandchildren. The journey took days, but we finally reached Dêrîk [al-Malakiyah],” she said. The horror of the massacre, with “thousands of Yazidis killed, their bodies thrown into mass graves”, is something Huseyn insists she can never forget.
Şêx Xidir’s account echoes the determination to survive. “When ISIS attacked Shengal, we had no weapons. We thought about fighting them by taking out the women and children, but without weapons, it was impossible.” He described being trapped by ISIS, with “all four sides blockaded, the roads completely closed.” His escape was fraught with danger, trusting to a random vehicle, saying, “either we will die, or we will survive; one of these two will happen.”
Şêx Xidir criticised the Peshmerga forces, who he said were taking money for passage to northern Syria. “We tried to cross, but the Peshmerga told us, ‘if anyone crosses, they will be killed.’ I couldn’t stand it and said, ‘There’s ISIS there, and there’s ISIS here too.’ They asked if I was calling them ISIS, and I said, ‘Yes, there is no difference between you and them. If there were, you wouldn’t have taken our weapons; you would have allowed us to pass. If you hadn’t taken the weapons, maybe we could have saved the women and children.'”
Both survivors emphasised the importance of Yazidi unity. Huseyn stated, “Yazidis, no matter which partythey are from or what views they hold, must ensure their unity. If Yazidis unite, they can overcome any difficulty.” Şêx Xidir added, “If the tree is strong, it doesn’t break. If we had united instead of running away and resisted together, maybe so many people wouldn’t have been killed. Our only wish is to unite.”
