Five years on, has the world forgotten the Yazidis who fled to the mountains?

The genocide did not end when the bullets stopped flying in Sinjar. In the years since, the suffering of the Yazidi people has continued, and yet the world has seemingly moved on

This weekend saw the passing of the fifth anniversary of the Yazidi genocide.

In the early hours of 3 August 2014, Isis fighters rampaged through the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, the community’s historic homeland. The fighters massacred thousands of men where they stood, and took an even greater number of women and children into slavery.

Those who managed to escape the first wave of killings were chased up the winding roads of Mount Sinjar, which has been a place of refuge for the Yazidis throughout their history. Many died of thirst as they fled.

It was one of the worst crimes of this century. But the Yazidi genocide did not end when the bullets stopped flying in Sinjar. In the years since, the suffering of the Yazidi people has continued, and yet the world has seemingly forgotten their plight.

That was a point made painfully obvious when Nadia Murad, a survivor of the genocide and Nobel Peace Prize winner, made a direct appeal to Donald Trump during a visit to the White House last month.

As she made an impassioned speech to the president to do more for Yazidi survivors, Mr Trump appeared to think the matter settled. “But Isis is gone and now it’s Kurdish and who?” he responded.

Mr Trump is not alone in his indifference. Five years on, the Yazidi people are still searching for safety. The place that they once called home still lies in ruins, caught in a tug-of-war between competing powers.

Two years ago I travelled to Mount Sinjar, the place where Yazidis sought safety in the face of the murderous Isis advance. At that time, people were fleeing there again as rival Kurdish groups fought for influence in the area.

One man told me: “I have a feeling that the international community have closed their eyes, and I don’t know why.”

Thousands still remain there to this day, on top of the barren mountain, still forgotten and still too afraid to return home. This sprawling tent city, which overlooks the site of the Yazidi people’s greatest trauma, is a testament to the international community’s inaction. There are many more camps like it in northern Iraq – around 350,000 are living in limbo, waiting to go home.

They wait in the knowledge that the perpetrators of the genocide against them have yet to be properly held to account, and with thousands of Yazidis still missing.

As Murad wrote in comments to mark the anniversary: “The continued suffering, fear and uncertainty in the Yazidi community show that the genocide process is ongoing.”

“If the international community refuses to exchange platitudes for swift action, the Islamic State’s genocidal campaign against Yazidis will prevail.”

Yours,

Richard Hall

Middle East correspondent