Nobel Prize-winner and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad announced on Sunday the rescue of six Yazidi women who were taken captive by ISIS.
In August 2014, ISIS invaded Sinjar—a district of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq from where the group abducted, killed and enslaved thousands of Yazidi men and women.
“After weeks of investigation, I am extremely heartened to report that we have rescued six more Yazidi women who were taken captive by ISIS,” Murad wrote on her twitter account.
The women were still children and teenagers when they were first taken captive in 2014, Murad said.
“Trafficked out of Iraq and onto Syria, they were rescued on Saturday morning. They have been flown back to Erbil where they will be reunited with their families, and offered all the psychosocial support they need,” she added.
The activist said this rescue wouldn’t have been possible without the efforts of President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani.
By setting up an office dedicated to rescuing kidnapped Yazidi women and girls, the President has helped many of them escape ISIS captivity, Murad explained.
“We will continue to search for the remaining women and children who we know are still missing. In this endeavor, we are asking for help with international partners,” she noted.
A Yazidi source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the majority of rescue operations are conducted through mediators who live in Syria and are tasked with searching for the abductees and freeing them in return for large sums of money.
The source said the payment is provided either by the Kurdistan Regional Government or some charitable organizations.
For its part, the Office for Yazidi Abductees Affairs praised President Barzani’s great efforts in liberating the six abductees.
Displaced Yazidi families from the Sinjar district reside in 26 camps in Dohuk where more than 35,000 families have not yet returned home, according to the Ministry of Migration and Displacement.
In March, the Office for Rescuing Yazidis in the Kurdistan Region said there are 6,417 kidnapped Yazidis, including 3,548 females and 2,869 males.
It said 3,562 were freed from ISIS grip while 2,693 remain captives.
