New Mass Grave Found in Shingal, Iraq

19 April 2024

Workers taking part in the road repair in Sîba Şêx Xidir neighbourhood in the south of Mount Shengal have discovered a mass grave. It is not yet known how many bodies were found in the mass grave.

The discovery of the mass reveals the atrocities committed by ISIS in 2014. The human rights organization, PETRICHOR, has joined the excavation efforts, focusing on specific aspects of the grave. Out of 89 mass graves in Sinjar, 38 have been excavated, returning 160 individuals’ remains to their families. Additionally, 500 remains have been sent to Baghdad’s forensic center for DNA testing. 

ISIS’s genocidal campaign on August 3, 2014, targeted the Ezidi population, resulting in over 6,500 women and children kidnapped, and 350,000 displaced, with 2,500 Yazidis remaining missing. The Peshmerga forces, who had previously disarmed the Ezidis in Shengal and asserted that they would protect the city, left, and opened a gate for ISIS-gangs into Shengal, leaving the Ezidis unprotected.

It is still unclear how many more mass graves remain unfound, but we will probably be faced with more similar sad news about the bones of our Ezidi brothers and sisters being discovered.