the (forgotten) drama of Yazidi children

The complaint is found in a study published by Save the Children for which more than a hundred minors between the ages of 7 and 17 were interviewed. Many still live as displaced people, in fear of being kidnapped and recruited, and are also unable to access their right to study. If no action is taken, the situation is bound to “get worse”.

Erbil () – Eight years after the rise of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), with its trail of blood and devastation in northern Iraq, the majority of Yazidi children still live in conditions of “displaced” from their communities. and their places of origin. Save the Children activists have sounded the alarm in a study that was published a few days ago. From this it follows that “many” minors live “in unsafe environments” and “surrounded by physical reminders” of the violence suffered at the hands of jihadist militias, such as “destroyed houses, schools and hospitals”.

The report shows the state of abandonment in which children find themselves, whose childhood is largely denied and their suffering forgotten by the international community, which should “satisfy their full rights to education” and hope “for a better future “. In the summer of 2014 some 400,000 Yazidis -an ethnic-religious minority living between Syria and Iraq- were captured, killed or forced to flee their homeland, Sinjar, due to the violence of the “Islamic caliphate”.

Over the years, the United Nations recognized that the persecution they suffered was an authentic “genocide.” As many as 3,000 women and girls were victims of and suffered rape and other forms of sexual violence, many of whom are still missing today. The men were separated from their families and forcibly recruited into the ranks of the Islamic State.

To understand the impact of the tragedy and its relevance today, activists interviewed 117 children between the ages of 7 and 17 who were very young or little more than children when they lost their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in the war. . All respondents, regardless of age, say they have a constant feeling of fear and lack of security in everyday life. Among adolescents, 39 of the 40 who participated in the study said they “do not feel safe where they live” and are concerned about “kidnapping, sexual assault and recruitment” by armed groups and “more losses family or separations”. “Every day,” says Khalid, whose name is not real and who is between 7 and 10 years old, “we see young children carrying weapons and working with security forces and armed groups.”

Another problem is the linguistic issue, because many children have forgotten their native language, Kurmanji, or have been born in captivity without ever having learned it. For this reason, they have enormous difficulties in communicating with their surviving family members and returning to their communities of origin. Added to this are post-traumatic disorders, especially in girls who have survived sexual abuse and violence, which lead to behavioral disorders, depression and other mental and physical problems.

The lack of identity documents, the denial of the right to education, the absence of specific recovery programs are some of the many critical elements, with bombed schools, insecurity when traveling and the risk, which still exists, of being victims of kidnapping. “Our boys and girls are afraid to go to schools that are too far away – says Souzan, a social worker (whose name is also fictitious) – for fear of being kidnapped”.

Rizgar Aljaff, Director of Save the Children in Iraq, observes: “Yazidi children continue to live in fear as a result of what they and their families have suffered at the hands of ISIS. They are still denied their fundamental rights as children. The urgent care and support they need to help them process the trauma and heal remains very scarce. If there are no changes, the impact of the genocide on Yazidi children – he concludes – can only get worse”.